Marked for Nikition Delijaj
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
30 days out for Vedran Sutalo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Opatija will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Opatija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Opatija
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Groznica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Borna Cik for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Opatija will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Tin Polić asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Opatija may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Dino Kapitanović 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Nikola Rodin 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 dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Match1 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Istra 1961 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Oct 2027
4 matches without a win for Opatija
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Opatija are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Opatija
Dino Kapitanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Gabriel Groznica 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Hrvace left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
The dugout25 Oct 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dino Kapitanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Everybody at Opatija saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 41 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Opatija
Leon Brlek 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Nikition Delijaj, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Opatija 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Gabriel Groznica asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market29 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Goodness Ajayi signs something — a contract at Opatija or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Dino Kapitanović damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Opatija
Goodness Ajayi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Opatija
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Groznica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Luka Duduković
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Opatija would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market1 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Goodness Ajayi signs something — a contract at Opatija or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Opatija lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Dino Kapitanović 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Opatija
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Groznica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Oct 2026
Opatija out of the cup
BSK Bijelo Brdo ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match17 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Opatija
A 0‑3 beating by Cibalia was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Opatija's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Opatija has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Val Bogolin at 21 — 7.67
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Val Bogolin did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikition Delijaj is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Opatija dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sime Grbic after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
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Squad
Andro Švrljuga falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Val Bogolin
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Leon Brlek