Noah Popović 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Uskok go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanja Vukmanović 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 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.
Nobody at Uskok 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Junior Bita signs something — a contract at Uskok or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 The request is on a desk at Uskok, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vanja Vukmanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hajduk Split 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.
Luuk Vogels 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.
Uskok asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Radonić 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 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Uskok have made the call to HNK Vukovar 1991. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Noah Popović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Uskok can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uskok can pretend not to have heard.
Junior Bita 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.
Uskok asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanja Vukmanović 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 doing his job and he is not settling. Uskok were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uskok can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uskok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Radonić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uskok told Vanja Vukmanović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uskok, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Uskok will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Uskok have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andro Marušić 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Hrvoje Kramaric has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Uskok, and it is not being withdrawn.
Junior Bita 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Francisco Pinho has written the date down.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.27, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vanja Vukmanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uskok told Noah Popović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andro Marušić signs something — a contract at Uskok or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Position 6 on 42 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.50 for the rest of it.
Isaac Lufuiku 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.
A 2‑1 win over Mladost Zdralovi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Krešimir Radoš did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Noah Popović 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hrvoje Kramaric after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Uskok 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.27, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Junior Bita 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Andro Marušić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Hrvatski Dragovoljac.
Position 2, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Uskok, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Uskok is running low.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Krešimir Radoš, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uskok have done the hard part with Dugo Selo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Uskok asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Krešimir Radoš provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Uskok, and it is not being withdrawn.
Vanja Vukmanović 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Radonić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Krešimir Radoš, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.11 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Uskok know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Varteks held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Uskok answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hrvoje Kramaric after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanja Vukmanović 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.
Everybody at Uskok saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Hrvoje Kramaric could afford to be generous.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uskok lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Krešimir Radoš did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vanja Vukmanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Antonio Radonić 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uskok 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.” Uskok have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Andro Marušić is on it.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uskok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vanja Vukmanović 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.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uskok lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bjelovar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Uskok have gone and got theirs early.
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uskok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andro Marušić 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 22 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uskok will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Uskok have gone to Orijent 1919 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.
Andro Marušić 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.
Uskok asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 at Uskok 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonio Radonić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andro Marušić 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Uskok will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uskok lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uskok will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Uskok know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andro Marušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 Andro Marušić is on it.
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uskok lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uskok will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andro Marušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabrijel Kovačević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Hrvoje Kramaric chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Uskok is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 140 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 31 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andro Marušić 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.
Josip Tomašević 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uskok, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The deal with Kustosija 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.
Vanja Vukmanović 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Uskok will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Uskok know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uskok, another week without a signature from Bruno Grgić.