Marked for Stanislav Grinev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2028
7 matches without a win for Napredak
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Napredak are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lazar Balević and Napredak agree another 5 years.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Aleksandar Lutovac 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Napredak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Tošeski 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Cukaricki left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Dragan Čubra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Sep 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Skrobonja signs something — a contract at Napredak or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match8 Mar 2028
The cup run ends for UTC
0‑1 against Cesar Vallejo, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
A chastening introduction for Kacper Kasza — 5.57
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.57 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Tempers go at UTC
David Camacho 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at UTC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Lora 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Ramos, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and UTC are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match11 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Alianza Lima will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Shots: 5, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladan Elesin and Slavia Mozyr agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Andrey Solovey 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.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Marked 8.79. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Slavia Mozyr.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arseniy Ageev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Kirill Chernook 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Slavia Mozyr academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Match3 Jul 2027
It needed Alexey Antilevskiy to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Belshina, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.