Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prestige Mboungou 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.
Position 12, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Dragan Tegeltija 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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.” Miroslav Krsticic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at TSC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around TSC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prestige Mboungou 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at TSC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marko Ćurić 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. TSC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at TSC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Vukašin Krstić is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against IMT in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TSC can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Trnava have kept their man, and TSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dragan Tegeltija 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Miroslav Krsticic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around TSC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
TSC and Cukaricki have settled on $180.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
TSC close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jedinstvo Ub have kept their man, and TSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Karviná have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dušan Lišanin. The answer from TSC has not changed — yet.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bogdan Petrović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TSC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Miloš Mladenović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
TSC have gone to Cukaricki with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Add another name to the list: Ušće have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dušan Žagar. The answer from TSC has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prestige Mboungou 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.
“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; TSC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TSC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. TSC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TSC can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jedinstvo Ub have kept their man, and TSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Vukašin Krstić 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.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon TSC had all but put away. OFK Beograd will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad7 Aug 2028
10 new faces, and TSC 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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TSC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for TSC is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
8.14. 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at TSC has been clear about where Stefan Jovanović stands, which is more than many ever get.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TSC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
$660.0K on the table at Cukaricki. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A loan enquiry to Olympiacos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Bojan Adžić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Filip Đukić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every TSC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kozármisleny runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dušan Žagar
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prestige Mboungou 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.
He is 23 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.
Stefan Tomović 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prestige Mboungou 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at TSC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Radnicki 1923 next, and one man in the TSC dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at TSC has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prestige Mboungou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dušan Žagar’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and TSC needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Miloš Šatara has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at TSC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefan Mladenović signs something — a contract at TSC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prestige Mboungou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bogdan Petrović. 1‑0 against Partizan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Vukašin Krstić 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.
A loan enquiry to Puskas Akademia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dušan Žagar is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
“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 IMT, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dušan Žagar was one of the reasons people came, and $460.0K does not replace that by itself.
Iván Martos 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.
28 games, 1 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at IMT now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josué Tiendrébéogo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and IMT go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Mladost Lucani this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $460.0K for Dušan Žagar, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IMT lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marko Luković had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 IMT, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josué Tiendrébéogo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
Vincent Alsing Tigerholm 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.
In brief
The dugoutIbrahima Kébé asks for a word with the manager
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Liberty Professionals keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
TSC have gone to IMT with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Jedinstvo Ub moved on, Dragan Tegeltija reports back to TSC, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stefan Tomović is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prestige Mboungou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vukašin Krstić 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.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IMT lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dubočica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at IMT is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Jérémy Manzorro 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.
9 goals in 25 games at Ušće — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at IMT updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IMT lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josué Tiendrébéogo 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.
Jérémy Manzorro 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.
Nobody at IMT 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.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IMT lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IMT have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Vukašin Jovanović 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josué Tiendrébéogo 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.
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.