Marked for Stefan Baltić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Apr 2028
Dragoljub Savić: 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.” TSC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Apr 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 TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at TSC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Dimoski 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match22 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for TSC
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at TSC
Prestige Mboungou 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.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at TSC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saša Jovanović 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.
Squad24 Jan 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.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market24 Jan 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for TSC
7 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
Miloš Šatara hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what TSC can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Tempers go at TSC
Baptiste Roux 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 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at TSC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Capan 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 ratings1 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Luka Capan will replay that one
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Luka Capan is still paying for one afternoon at TSC
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for IMT
10 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IMT this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikola Krstić commits to IMT for another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Stefan Šapić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Aug 2027
IMT and Napredak cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Napredak came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market9 Aug 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IMT know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
5.54 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Maecky Ngombo damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Mass Sise keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” TSC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Stefan Baltić gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stefan Baltić has just signed for TSC, and for once the answer mattered.
Match7 Aug 2027
Three points for TSC, 2‑1 the final word against OFK Beograd in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
TSC supporters have found a favourite in Mass Sise
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mass Sise 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 ratings9 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes of Mass Sise at his very best
Marked 8.51. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at TSC.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Mihajlo Milosavić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at TSC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Capan 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Radivoj Bosić has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at TSC.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match15 Feb 2027
IMT sink to position 16
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match13 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for IMT
7 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
No clean sheets in sight for IMT
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ognjen Čančarević, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
A hiding for IMT
Beaten 0‑3 by OFK Beograd, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 IMT, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
Fear has settled over IMT
Position 16, 18 points, and a crowd that arrives already braced. Relegation seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere, and everybody who has lived through one recognises it immediately.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marko Luković commits to IMT for another 4 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ognjen Čančarević, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nobody left the IMT dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market4 Jan 2027
A conversation is coming this week. IMT will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
8 matches without a win for IMT
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around IMT are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Sankara Karamoko takes the afternoon — 7.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sankara Karamoko provided it, and the 7.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IMT this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jetmir Haliti
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at IMT
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Iván Martos'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.