Marked for Enis Berisha
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Jan 2028
Position 8, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market17 Jan 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jadran Luka Ploce waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Igor Lepinjica 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.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Umeh Emmanuel 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
A muscle injury and 17 days out for Tomislav Božić
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Slaven Belupo will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad24 May 2027
Matej Maglica and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Dominik Kovačić 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.
Squad24 May 2027
29 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I did not go to Jadran Luka Ploce to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slaven Belupo and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Loan watch24 May 2027
26 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ljuban Crepulja, 33, rolls back the years — 7.90
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Solin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ljuban Crepulja’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Slaven Belupo.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Enis Berisha is the month’s best young player
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Slaven Belupo will try not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lovre Lončar and Slaven Belupo agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The team sheet said everything about Ivan Čović
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ivan Čović.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Enis Berisha named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Enis Berisha is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tin Srna, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slaven Belupo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Filip Jović in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Late, late show earns Slaven Belupo a point
Minute 91, against HNK Rijeka, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Marko Dabro gets it from the manager
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
It needed Igor Lepinjica to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against HNK Rijeka, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Tin Srna on the draw
“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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.