It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava 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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Aleš Kočí 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.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
The mood at Jihlava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
David Moses 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.
Pribram made Jihlava work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Křehlík 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Klieštik 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.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
Kenneth Ikugar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matěj Čechal
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Křehlík 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.
“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 dugout24 Nov 2031
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 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bohemians 1905 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jihlava know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
David Moses 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jihlava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jihlava know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
18 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Jihlava has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces13 Oct 2031
The mood at Jihlava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 15 and 5 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jihlava can pretend not to have heard.
David Moses 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
16 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Kočí 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Teplice defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Samuel Klieštik’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jihlava needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutDominik Mašek is not enjoying his job description
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Jihlava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 14 and 4 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.
Ezekiel Tamara 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutJakub Lopatář knocks on the manager's door
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
1‑4 to Bohemians 1905, 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.
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.
David Moses 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Kočí 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.
Player ratings18 Aug 2031
David Moses was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
9 combined actions and 6.68. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Jihlava dressing room in a hurry
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jihlava lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Jihlava dressing room was either.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jihlava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Jihlava has been clear about where Adrián Čermák stands, which is more than many ever get.
The mood at Jihlava has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑4 to Sigma Olomouc, 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.
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.
David Moses 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
12 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bohemians 1905 have kept their man, and Jihlava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.