2‑5 to Partizan, 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrej Pavlović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between OFK Beograd and Partizan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Milan Rodić 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.
At 23 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.
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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 The request is on a desk at OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Milan Rodić 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.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Milan Rodić 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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 0‑2 Sergej Savic 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.
In brief
SquadA OFK Beograd teenager takes the young player award
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.
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Milan Rodić 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.
A 2‑1 win over Radnik Surdulica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nemanja Trifunović 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.
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A 7‑1 win over Spartak Subotica, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ardian Murati did not need any: 9.59, 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 OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mouhamadou Fall provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrej Pavlović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Miloš Pantović 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 Milan Rodić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 91, against Mladost Lucani, 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at OFK Beograd is running low.
Spartak Subotica have accepted the money. What OFK Beograd do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Miloš Pantović 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 Milan Rodić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
OFK Beograd asked and TSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
$1.4M on the table at Partizan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrej Pavlović is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
OFK Beograd asked and Egnatia Rrogozhinë said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marko Gobeljić
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OFK Beograd 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 OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at OFK Beograd
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Rodina 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Egnatia Rrogozhinë is saying, and nobody at OFK Beograd is enjoying the guessing.
At 23 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OFK Beograd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at OFK Beograd
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Balša Popović 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
Edmund Addo 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 Ethan Hoard trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFK Beograd. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrej Pavlović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Balša Popović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Rodić 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrej Pavlović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFK Beograd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at OFK Beograd
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrej Pavlović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Rodić 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Saša Marković has written the date down.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFK Beograd lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrej Pavlović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at OFK Beograd would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Saša Marković has written the date down.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFK Beograd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFK Beograd people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 7.83 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at OFK Beograd 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Miloš Pantović 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 Milan Rodić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergej Savic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Edmund Addo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OFK Beograd needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Despotovski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jovan Šljivić