Marked for Denis Křemen
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2027
22 days out for Denis Křemen after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slovan Liberec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Supporters turn on the $3.6M sale of Šimon Gabriel
He is going to Viktoria Plzen, the club has $3.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market16 Aug 2027
Viktoria Plzen pay $3.6M, 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zenit is saying, and nobody at Slovan Liberec is enjoying the guessing.
Match14 Aug 2027
4 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
1‑3 to Jablonec, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Jan Mikula 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Jan Knapík 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
29 days out for Denis Křemen after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slovan Liberec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer from Universitatea Cluj for Ivan Krajčírik 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Jan Knapík has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slovan Liberec they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout9 Aug 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juraj Chvátal commits to Slovan Liberec for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Špatenka 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Denis Křemen out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slovan Liberec will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Slovan Liberec go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Filip Špatenka 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 dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Tomáš Koubek
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Mikula 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Christián Herc was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Slovan Liberec had all but put away. Slavia Prague will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Slovan Liberec
12 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Táborsko had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad26 Jul 2027
45 days out for Denis Křemen after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slovan Liberec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Jul 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Haris Berbić: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slovan Liberec have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Augustin Drakpe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slovan Liberec the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market26 Jul 2027
The fee is $400.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Viktoria Plzen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Lukáš Mašek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Mikula 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Denis Křemen breaks a bone — 55 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jul 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 targets19 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is saying, and nobody at Slovan Liberec is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Lukáš Mašek 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Slovan Liberec will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Slovan Liberec
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market19 Jul 2027
Business is business: Jinřich Musil goes
Táborsko paid $160.0K and Slovan Liberec took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
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.