Marked for Danilo Pejić
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vojvodina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danilo Pejić commits to Vojvodina for another 4 years.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matija Gočmanac is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Njegoš Petrović 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Dejan Zukić 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 Dejan Zukić is on it.
Market21 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nardin Mulahusejnović’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matija Gočmanac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Jun 2027
Vojvodina are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Vojvodina have gone to Wolfsberger AC 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Crvena Zvezda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lazar Nikolić. The answer from Vojvodina has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wolfsberger AC have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Njegoš Petrović 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Njegoš Petrović 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Danilo Pejić has had enough of the bench
“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 Vojvodina will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lazar Peranović, and the manager let it.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Đorđe Jovanović keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Vojvodina say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Apr 2027
Vojvodina are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A move Karol Kalata would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Karol Kalata is living that version at Vojvodina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Vojvodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Njegoš Petrović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danilo Pejić, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
27 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Dejan Zukić 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 Dejan Zukić is on it.
Market12 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nardin Mulahusejnović signs something — a contract at Vojvodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.