Marked for Oliver Engberg
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mačva Šabac have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad31 Jul 2028
There were 6 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mačva Šabac is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jul 2028
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Eduart Rroca 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSC have kept their man, and Mačva Šabac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Luka Pejović 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
0‑1 to Loznica, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match29 Jul 2028
4 matches without defeat, and then Loznica. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
Luka Nikolić 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.
Squad22 May 2028
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Luka Serdar, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom22 May 2028
The numbers do not look good at Mačva Šabac
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Mačva Šabac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduart Rroca 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.
Squad22 May 2028
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout22 May 2028
“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
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
Luka Nikolić 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milan Gvozdenović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 93% of everything Mačva Šabac earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Muhamed Mehmeti
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Mačva Šabac would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout15 May 2028
Aldrit Oshafi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mačva Šabac 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filip Novaković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mačva Šabac the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nemanja Krstić commits to Mačva Šabac for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Mačva Šabac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Gvozdenović 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Vahid Gicić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mačva Šabac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 May 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout8 May 2028
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 dugout8 May 2028
“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 dugout8 May 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mačva Šabac. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
There were 9 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Vahid Gicić, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match26 Feb 2028
The run at home goes on for Mačva Šabac
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Luka Nikolić 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
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The numbers do not look good at Mačva Šabac
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Mačva Šabac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduart Rroca 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 terraces28 Feb 2028
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
Kristijan Bošković damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Market13 Dec 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filip Novaković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mačva Šabac the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Oliver Engberg is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Milan Gvozdenović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Đorđe Đorđić 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 terraces13 Dec 2027
At 20 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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Eduart Rroca
“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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 7.34 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Mačva Šabac had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout13 Dec 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.” Sergej Pavlovic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Nov 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mačva Šabac they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Luka Nikolić 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Oliver Engberg is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Đorđe Đorđić 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Đorđe Đorđić gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mačva Šabac can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Mladen Živković 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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FAP Priboj in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Aldrit Oshafi gets picked when it counts
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 Aldrit Oshafi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
35 days out for Stefan Filipović after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mačva Šabac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market6 Sep 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mačva Šabac have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mačva Šabac can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Sep 2027
So close: Luka Nikolić’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Partizan moved on, Luka Nikolić reports back to Mačva Šabac, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Mačva Šabac 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Igor Vučićević arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Igor Vučićević has, at Mačva Šabac, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Maksim Kličković 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Mačva Šabac now.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Đorđe Đorđić 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.