Vukašin Jovanović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irfan Hadžić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Stefan Djuricic to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Nikola Boranijašević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Divine Chidera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Vukašin Jovanović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The Mladost Lucani dressing room has split into 4 groups
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 4 separate groups, 2 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Andrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Stefan Djuricic to a room that had heard them before.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mladost Lucani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Radnicki Nis next, and one man in the Mladost Lucani dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Mladost Lucani know it.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Lukic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladimir Radonjic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Three points for Mladost Lucani, 1‑0 the final word against Cukaricki in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nikola Andrić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irfan Hadžić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mihailo Todosijević is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Marked 7.41 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Mladost Lucani had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Stefan Djuricic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Mladost Lucani will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Vukašin Jovanović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Andrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.73 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Mladost Lucani had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stefan Djuricic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Radnik Surdulica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutJohn Mary asks for a word with the manager
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Bojić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Jovan Ćirić
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jovan Ćirić has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mladost Lucani have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Mladost Lucani will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 14 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Nikola Boranijašević and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Andrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
A 1‑1 draw with Crvena Zvezda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stefan Djuricic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mladost Lucani dressing room was either.
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Divine Chidera has agreed terms with El-Kanemi Warriors for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
James Emo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.