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.
Sankara Karamoko 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. 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I watch every IMT game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Smederevo 1924 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Luković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Miloš Jović, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where IMT would like this to lead.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Crvena Zvezda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Sankara Karamoko 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and IMT 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.
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 Vladimir Radočaj is on it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marko Lukic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the IMT dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Žagar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against OFK Beograd? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutMiloš Jović left out for tactical reasons at IMT
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at IMT 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IMT this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Miloš Jović is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. IMT will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Josué Tiendrébéogo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Radnicki Nis pay $370.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefan Baltić 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IMT this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marko Lukic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dušan Žagar 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.