Xavi Quintillà 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartakos Kitiou have kept their man, and Ypsonas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Przemysław Pęksa again, and this time the name on the line is Agia Napa. Ypsonas are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Nikola Trujić 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.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mark Stojinović is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Maxime Do Couto 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Ypsonas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xavi Quintillà 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.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slovan Ljubljana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivica Vidović 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. Bravo have kept their man, and Slovan Ljubljana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Ljubljana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maj Rorič 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.
Slovan Ljubljana asked and Nafta 1903 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slovan Ljubljana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slovan Ljubljana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slovan Ljubljana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Denis Mazreku 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 Jun 2027
Matic Slavec 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Albin Ahmetaj signs something — a contract at Slovan Ljubljana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
“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 Slovan Ljubljana, 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 Slovan Ljubljana 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 Maj Rorič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slovan Ljubljana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Albin Ahmetaj signs something — a contract at Slovan Ljubljana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Matic Verbic are not good
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Stefan Melentijević 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 Maj Rorič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maj Rorič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Ljubljana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maj Rorič 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 club 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 it has been tried.
Something was said to Ervin Németh and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vall Janković signs something — a contract at Slovan Ljubljana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Harry Bridle trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Slovan Ljubljana the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Vall Janković 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 had been thinking. Maj Rorič 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.
5 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mark Stojinović has his answer from Slovan Ljubljana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slovan Ljubljana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alan Kaučič’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slovan Ljubljana needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Ljubljana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Vall Janković 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 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Paweł Tarnowski commits to Slovan Ljubljana for another 1 years.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nik Belovič is the division's best young player this month
At 18 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Slovan Ljubljana will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dravinja scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Miha Oblak, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 Sep 2026
21 new faces, and Slovan Ljubljana 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Domen Handanovic after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Slovan Ljubljana will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.