Luka Lukanić 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Filip Panić has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Nafta 1903 have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Bryan Destin 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nafta 1903 will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nafta 1903 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Nafta 1903, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nafta 1903 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
1 for Áron Dragóner, marked 7.24, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NK Krka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nafta 1903 paid $64.0K and NK Krka took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
NK Krka asked and Bjelovar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Leon Bičanić 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 Žan Kovačevič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Nafta 1903, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luka Poredoš 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.
Jaša Hribar was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $64.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
7 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anis Jašaragić 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 Amadej Maroša signs something — a contract at Nafta 1903 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Nafta 1903 will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tabor Sežana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NK Krka 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 NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
Andraž Lipec 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olimpija Ljubljana have kept their man, and NK Krka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Leon Bičanić 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.
NK Krka have made the call to Olimpija Ljubljana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 NK Krka will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Nejc Balkovec's mistake
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Andraz Kampl has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jesenice have kept their man, and NK Krka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. NK Krka have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Leon Bičanić 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.
NK Krka have made the call to Olimpija Ljubljana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Olimpija Ljubljana 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Haris Kahvedžić has his answer from NK Krka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Omar Kočar exposed
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. NK Krka lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Andraž Lipec 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Bičanić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NK Krka, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nejc Balkovec trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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.
At 20 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Nik Kapun’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Krka.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Bičanić 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Andraz Kampl kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Krka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Jakob Cukjati on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of NK Krka and Brinje Grosuplje.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Maribor have kept their man, and NK Krka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Bičanić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Jakob Cukjati to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Brinje Grosuplje, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
Squad15 new faces, and NK Krka are still learning each other
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Andraz Kampl on the draw