Position 15 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mačva Šabac, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mačva Šabac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Adem Avdić 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Branislav Lazovic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Lejs Pličanić 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 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Adam Vošnjak 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adam Vošnjak. 2‑0 against Jesenice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Dravinja to sit and watch. I want to come back to Rudar Velenje and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 23 matches say the rest.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jan Sikosek kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mačva Šabac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Mačva Šabac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
Half the programme played, position 16, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“I watch every Mačva Šabac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rudar Velenje runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout22 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 Branislav Lazovic to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mohamed Cissé
Position 15 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mačva Šabac 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 Mačva Šabac 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 Jasin Rašljanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Mačva Šabac is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I watch every Mačva Šabac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rudar Velenje runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Branislav Lazovic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Lejs Pličanić 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Adam Vošnjak 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lejs Pličanić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rudar Velenje told Valent Šavor something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Rudar Velenje will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
NK Krsko next, and one man in the Rudar Velenje dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Đorđe Đorđić 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
Adem Avdić 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Branislav Lazovic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Mačva Šabac dressing room was either.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Igor Milanović is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mačva Šabac can pretend not to have heard.
Nenad Lukić 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 Adem Avdić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marko Simić obliged against Jesenice. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Rudar Velenje.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Josip Perković provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Valent Šavor, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rudar Velenje have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at NK Celje is saying, and nobody at Rudar Velenje is enjoying the guessing.
Gašper Gaberšek Rotovnik 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 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Rudar Velenje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lejs Pličanić 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 first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Crvena Zvezda; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Nenad Lukić 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Mačva Šabac will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I watch every Mačva Šabac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rudar Velenje runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gomel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rudar Velenje is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rudar Velenje can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Mačva Šabac, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Rudar Velenje asked and NK Domzale said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Lejs Pličanić 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.
Tilen Rajter Krebs 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.
Rudar Velenje have made the call to Mladost Lucani. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mačva Šabac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Add another name to the list: OFK Beograd have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dejan Živkov. The answer from Mačva Šabac has not changed — yet.
Nenad Lukić 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 Đorđe Petrović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ordabasy had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Mačva Šabac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nenad Lukić 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Đorđe Petrović will call it something else in private.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Mačva Šabac man
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nenad Lukić 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.
6 goals in one match, Nenad Lukić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Mačva Šabac and Zemun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jasin Rašljanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
The phone has started ringing about Sultan Al-Saadi again, and this time the name on the line is Ordabasy. Mačva Šabac are listening politely and promising nothing.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Grafičar the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Mačva Šabac will enjoy reviewing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mačva Šabac can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Crvena Zvezda; Mačva Šabac go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mačva Šabac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Mačva Šabac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nenad Lukić 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
140% of the income goes out in wages at Mačva Šabac
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mačva Šabac have done the hard part with OFK Vršac, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Napredak keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nenad Lukić 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.
Position 2, 40 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Dejan Živkov takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dejan Živkov provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deal with Napredak 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.
Nenad Lukić 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.69, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mačva Šabac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Nenad Lukić 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 Igor Vićentijević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Branislav Lazovic on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Khaled Ebraheim’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sharjah needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Rashed Humaid Al-Blooshi leaves Sharjah the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
7.70, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Igor Coronado 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.
At 19 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.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdollah Esmaeili 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Sharjah have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.