Marked for Mario Blažević
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
The knee: Marko Batur out for 37 days
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiva Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market1 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Marko Batur
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Batur will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiva Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 May 2028
Marko Rog 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Karlo Butić is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Karlo Butić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Lokomotiva Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Zvonimir Kostelac 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.
Loan watch1 May 2028
The goals keep arriving from Petar Andrić’s exile
8 goals in 30 games at Grobnican — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mario Blažević, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 May 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Marko Batur 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.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
The goals keep arriving from Petar Andrić’s exile
8 goals in 30 games at Grobnican — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market6 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiva Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
“Nobody here treats me like a loan player, and that is worth more than people think.” 29 appearances and 0 goals, and a summer that will decide it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Duje Reić moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Lokomotiva Zagreb than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Luka Capan has been promised minutes
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 Luka Capan has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Feb 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tobias Christensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Lokomotiva Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Armer 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
The clock runs on Mateo Leš's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Fran Žilinski gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fran Žilinski is on it.
Loan watch14 Feb 2028
The goals keep arriving from Petar Andrić’s exile
6 goals in 27 games at Grobnican — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Mateo Leš still has not settled
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lokomotiva Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiva Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Jan 2028
Noa Godec has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiva Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to O'Higgins: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Batur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Leon Belcar is somebody else's player now, and $400.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Nov 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokomotiva Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Tobias Christensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Nov 2027
1‑3 to Orijent 1919, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandr Maximenko's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petar Sutalo after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The team sheet said everything about Luka Capan
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Luka Capan.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Lokomotiva Zagreb lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.