Marked for Vukašin Topić
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Nardin Mulahusejnović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Njegoš Petrović 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
A loan move for Lovre Rogić is in the works
Vojvodina have made the call to Dinamo Bucharest. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Olimpija Ljubljana have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vukašin Topić, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Joshua Kayode slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Joshua Kayode is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market4 Jun 2029
Nenad Matic told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nenad Matic has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Vojvodina.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
Pylyp Budkivskyi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Vojvodina 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 May 2029
Continental nights are coming to Vojvodina
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Match28 May 2029
76 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 May 2029
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Vojvodina had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout28 May 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 May 2029
Words exchanged at Vojvodina
Andrej Todoroski 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Njegoš Petrović 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.
The dugout28 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksa Vukanović, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 May 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout28 May 2029
Vukašin Topić asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Vojvodina
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Dzigbah 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 dugout9 Apr 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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 Pylyp Budkivskyi is on it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager comes out for Dejan Zukić
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Dejan Zukić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Feb 2028
Partizan ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A one-man rearguard from Dragan Rosić
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces28 Feb 2028
A cup hiding at Partizan leaves Vojvodina explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad28 Feb 2028
At 20, Vukašin Topić is already the best thing here
An average of 6.62 in a first team he is several years too young for. Vojvodina have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Njegoš Petrović 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Vojvodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nardin Mulahusejnović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Lazar Nikolić
“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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Sinisa Maksimovic left the room before anybody could ask which.