152 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Trencin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MSK Zilina have kept their man, and AS Trencin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AS Trencin, and it is not being withdrawn.
AS Trencin offered $1.1M; Podbrezova said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
$220.0K on the table at MFK Michalovce. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nani Ferreira will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS Trencin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Trencin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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 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.
Jakub Paur 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.
“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 AS Trencin know it.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at AS Trencin that is a harder question to answer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS Trencin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Richard Križan 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.
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.
“I watch every AS Trencin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spartak Trnava runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AS Trencin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The deal with Podbrezova is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Richard Križan 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.
The name of Adrián Fiala has come up in conversations AS Trencin were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at AS Trencin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ridwan Sanusi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MFK Michalovce have kept their man, and AS Trencin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Spartak Trnava will make the call about Antonio Baždarić this week. AS Trencin have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AS Trencin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS Trencin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ridwan Sanusi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at AS Trencin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Križan 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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Markus Poom trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AS Trencin will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tadeáš Hájovský signs something — a contract at AS Trencin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑3 against Slovan Bratislava, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richie Musaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Tomas Benes to a room that had heard them before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jakub Paur will call it something else in private.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS Trencin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ogar Sebastine has just signed for AS Trencin, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Križan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout16 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.” Tomas Benes kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.