It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 The request is on a desk at Jarun Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jarun Zagreb can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Herzuah and Jarun Zagreb agree another 3 years.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fabijan Petričević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vito Matijević signs something — a contract at Jarun Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jean Meyer has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Martin Janáček 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Čurković 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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ivan Grudko was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nick Ocvirek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jarun Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces26 Mar 2029
The mood at Jarun Zagreb has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jarun Zagreb 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 Jarun Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krešimir Luetić 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nick Ocvirek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jarun Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Paschal Durugbor 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 Mar 2029
Ivan Čurković 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jarun Zagreb, another week without a signature from Fabijan Petričević.
“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 Jarun Zagreb will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A Jarun Zagreb teenager takes the young player award
Diego Saina is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fabijan Petričević 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 Jarun Zagreb can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 7 on 41 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.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Diego Saina decided nobody was going anywhere. Uljanik Pula had no time left to answer.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Diego Saina, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 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 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 7.44 for the rest of it.
Paschal Durugbor 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.
The mood at Jarun Zagreb has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jarun Zagreb is running low.
Marked 7.67 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Ivan Čurković 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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jarun Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Martin Janáček 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.
At 19 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.
Jarun Zagreb ran out of time with Hajduk Split. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The mood at Jarun Zagreb has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Jarun Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Abdoulaye Djiré 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.
Jarun Zagreb 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Čurković 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jarun Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Jarun Zagreb have done the hard part with Hajduk Split, 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 Jarun Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Djiré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Saina. 2‑0 against Varteks, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Add another name to the list: Uljanik Pula have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonio Rajić. The answer from Jarun Zagreb has not changed — yet.
Supporters organise against the Jarun Zagreb board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jarun Zagreb is running low.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diego Saina did not need any: 7.63, 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 Jarun Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Djiré 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.
“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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
97% of the income goes out in wages at Jarun Zagreb
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: 22. 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.
Martin Janáček 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.
Something was said to Joel Ferreira and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jean Meyer was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Jarun Zagreb dressing room was either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Lucko next, and one man in the Jarun Zagreb dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antonio Rajić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jarun Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Toni Vidović 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 Jarun Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Nick Ocvirek 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.
Half the programme played, position 11, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jarun Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jarun Zagreb is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jarun Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Čurković 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Diego Saina 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Djiré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jean Meyer left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jarun Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Paschal Durugbor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Djiré 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Jarun Zagreb will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
Boardroom89% of the income goes out in wages at Jarun Zagreb
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jarun Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antonio Rajić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jarun Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Čurković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Toni Vidović 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Diego Saina 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.
0‑3 to Dugo Selo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jadran Luka Ploce waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Jarun Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Toni Vidović has, at Jarun Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Jarun Zagreb until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Abdoulaye Djiré 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jarun Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Ferro Carril Oeste 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.
Paschal Durugbor 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Djiré 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.
Jarun Zagreb asked and Spezia 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 easiest signature of my career.” Vedran Barisic and Jarun Zagreb agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It needed Diego Saina to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Mladost Zdralovi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jean Meyer was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Jarun Zagreb dressing room was either.
15 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jarun Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
$440.0K on the table at Lokomotiva Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Djiré 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sesvete have kept their man, and Jarun Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Saina. 1‑0 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Jarun Zagreb had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vito Matijević and Jarun Zagreb agree another 3 years.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferro Carril Oeste have kept their man, and Jarun Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nick Ocvirek 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.
13 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.
13 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jarun Zagreb can tell you which week it ends in.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jarun Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jean Meyer has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Position 14 on 24 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Janáček and Jarun Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jarun Zagreb 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.
0‑1 to Uskok, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jean Meyer to a room that had heard them before.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nick Ocvirek’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jarun Zagreb needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jarun Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Janáček 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.
“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 dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jean Meyer to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Jarun Zagreb will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A Jarun Zagreb teenager takes the young player award
Diego Saina is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jarun Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The mood at Jarun Zagreb has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Janáček was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 18 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.
“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 Jarun Zagreb know it.
Antonio Rajić 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 mood at Jarun Zagreb has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jarun Zagreb can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Paschal Durugbor 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.
“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 dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jean Meyer to a room that had heard them before.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diego Saina did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Paschal Durugbor 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 Martin Janáček was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Patrik Iliev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jarun Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Abdoulaye Djiré 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Janáček was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mladost Zdralovi were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jean Meyer on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jarun Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7 goals in one match, Diego Saina on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Jarun Zagreb and Kustosija.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gülağa Əsədov has, at Jarun Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bernardo Pereira and Jarun Zagreb agree another 3 years.
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 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Djiré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vrezh Mkrtchyan and Jarun Zagreb agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jarun Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 Kustosija.
The mood at Jarun Zagreb has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Jarun Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Martin Janáček 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 Abdoulaye Djiré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Jarun Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Croatia Zmijavci 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at NK Maribor is saying, and nobody at Jarun Zagreb is enjoying the guessing.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Janáček 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.
Jarun Zagreb asked and Dinamo 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.
Jarun Zagreb have made the call to NK Maribor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Damir Srna 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdoulaye Djiré signs something — a contract at Jarun Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Jarun Zagreb has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.