Marked for Ayomide Abatan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Feb 2027
Nowhere to hide for Jihlava
0‑5 against Slovan Liberec, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match6 Feb 2027
9 matches without a win for Jihlava
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Jihlava are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
9 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Jihlava are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match6 Feb 2027
4 matches without a goal for Jihlava
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Michal Kroupa 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Vít Beneš 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Vít Beneš 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
Anger at Jihlava spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match30 Jan 2027
0‑4 to Viktoria Plzen, 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
8 matches without a win for Jihlava
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Jihlava are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match30 Jan 2027
Jihlava are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Jihlava close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Jihlava
Marvis Ogiomade 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
3 matches without a goal for Jihlava
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Čermák 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
15 matches without a win for Jihlava
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Jihlava are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
7 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Jakub Mašát: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jihlava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Jihlava
Michal Kroupa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Marvis Ogiomade 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Sigma Olomouc, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Tomáš Franěk 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ayomide Abatan named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ayomide Abatan is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.