Isaac Tshipamba 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.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tibor Gorenc Stankovič 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.
Nobody at Nafta 1903 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jure Stojanovic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nafta 1903 has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nafta 1903 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Oliver Kregar had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and NK Krka were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Josip Marinić delivers — 7.66
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Josip Marinić scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Balázs Bakti is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Amadej Maroša
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Amadej Maroša has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nafta 1903 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Nafta 1903, 1‑0 the final word against Rudar Velenje in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Amadej Maroša was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tibor Gorenc Stankovič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jure Stojanovic could afford to be generous.
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.
Peter Cverle 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: 18. 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rene Kogoi commits to Nafta 1903 for another 4 years.
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.” Jure Stojanovic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Rudar Velenje.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Anis Jašaragić is on it.
Dravinja will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nafta 1903 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Marked 9.92. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nafta 1903.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Peter Cverle 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nafta 1903 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Nafta 1903 until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal that would have taken Domen Brumec to NK Domzale has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nafta 1903 with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mark Šerbec is living that version at Nafta 1903, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Tshipamba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Nafta 1903 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at ND Gorica, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Nafta 1903 have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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 offer from Bistrica for Michael Ogwuche was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bravo is saying, and nobody at Nafta 1903 is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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.
Peter Cverle 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andraz Janza 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vid Birsa 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petar Elsnik is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Tabor Sežana scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Nafta 1903 know which stage they are at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Amadej Maroša’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Josip Dabić is 20, and Nafta 1903 have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Nafta 1903 know which stage they are at.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nafta 1903 are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.