Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banik Ostrava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Banik Ostrava 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banik Ostrava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banik Ostrava is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Filip Kubala 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.
In brief
SquadMichal Kohút falls out with a teammate over standards
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banik Ostrava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Filip Kubala 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Michal Kohút 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banik Ostrava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Veres for David Planka was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viktor Budinský will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banik Ostrava 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 Banik Ostrava 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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banik Ostrava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banik Ostrava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Michal Kohút 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 phone has started ringing about Mohamed Yasser again, and this time the name on the line is Nagoya Grampus. Banik Ostrava are listening politely and promising nothing.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Srđan Plavšić had Banik Ostrava level again within 3 minutes, and Slovacko never got to play with a lead at all.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Banik Ostrava, and 6 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Srđan Plavšić
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banik Ostrava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Banik Ostrava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Srđan Plavšić. 1‑0 against Jablonec, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Ladra 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Banik Ostrava, and 5 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banik Ostrava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Banik Ostrava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Václav Jurečka. 2‑0 against Jihlava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.37 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banik Ostrava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 against Ajax. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viktor Budinský will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banik Ostrava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Michal Kohút 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 watch every Banik Ostrava game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sparta Prague runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viktor Budinský will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banik Ostrava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Banik Ostrava heard it as anything else.
Michal Kohút 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jiří Boula 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Banik Ostrava 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Banik Ostrava, and 1 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
1 for David Pavelka, marked 7.75, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“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 Banik Ostrava, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banik Ostrava is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Michal Kohút 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.
Match28 Aug 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Banik Ostrava and Sparta Prague in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Pojezný 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Add another name to the list: Zeleznicar Pancevo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohamed Yasser. The answer from Banik Ostrava has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Banik Ostrava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Karel Pojezný 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Dennis Owusu for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Banik Ostrava will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The goal that put Zlin ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Banik Ostrava equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“I watch every Banik Ostrava game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sparta Prague runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Jakub Surovčík has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Banik Ostrava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Pojezný 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 did not go to Sparta Prague to sit and watch. I want to come back to Banik Ostrava and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sparta Prague scored in the 121th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
1 for Elias Cobbaut, marked 7.78, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Lukáš Haraslín 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Simon Baroš 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Sparta Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Kadeřábek 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Sparta Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Sparta Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Kadeřábek 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marek Havran did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Banik Ostrava can pretend not to have heard.
Michal Kohút 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Pojezný 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Marek Havran 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.