Marked for John Auta
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lukáš Mareček
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Teplice lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Pavel Svatek 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Teplice
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Jukl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michal Bílek, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes Matěj Pulkrab a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Teplice. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
The knee: Lukáš Mareček out for 137 days
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Teplice lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Miroslav Routek: 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.” Teplice have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Mar 2027
John Auta is the real thing at 20
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Teplice know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pavel Svatek commits to Teplice for another 4 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Teplice
Michal Bílek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market15 Mar 2027
The Matyáš Kozák talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Teplice know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 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 Teplice, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Teplice
Matouš Trmal 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Daniel Mareček 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Lukáš Mareček knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Teplice, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Lukáš Mareček has moved up it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Karel Soldát 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 Karel Soldát has written the date down.
Market1 Mar 2027
Teplice have made Miroslav Routek available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Teplice would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Remember the name: John Auta
He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Matouš Trmal in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Teplice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market15 Feb 2027
One of our own: Tomas Holes joins the Teplice first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tomas Holes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Karel Coufal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Feb 2027
One of our own: Ales Coufal joins the Teplice first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ales Coufal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Teplice
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaroslav Harušťák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Petr Kodeš knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petr Kodeš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Matyáš Kozák talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Teplice know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Efa Enabulele
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Jan 2027
Pribram will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Teplice were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
John Auta, 20, steals the show — 8.40
Marked 8.40 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market18 Jan 2027
Teplice say no — this time
The offer from Zlate Moravce for Abdourahman Badamosi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Remember the name: John Auta
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Daniel Mareček 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Teplice
Michal Bílek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.24 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matěj Náprstek 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.56 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Tomáš Zlatohlávek takes the afternoon — 9.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomáš Zlatohlávek provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from John Auta at 20 — 8.28
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. John Auta did not need any: 8.28, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dynamo Kyiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Teplice
Matouš Trmal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Teplice have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Teplice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Mareček 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
A 3‑1 win over Jihlava, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Teplice
Matouš Trmal 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Teplice asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdourahman Badamosi and Teplice agree another 5 years.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
John Auta beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Dynamo Kyiv: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Robert Jukl left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Robert Jukl will call it something else in private.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Michal Jeřábek
“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.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Teplice
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The dugout
The form table has caught Robert Jukl
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Boardroom
Open for business: Teplice enter the window
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Teplice
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Mareček was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Oct 2026
Matyáš Kozák scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Jablonec, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matouš Trmal, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Teplice are still strangers to each other
14 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market26 Oct 2026
Michal Jeřábek is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Teplice has been clear about where Michal Jeřábek stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Michal Bílek
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Matěj Náprstek has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Teplice will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
John Auta, 20, steals the show — 8.19
Marked 8.19 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matouš Trmal 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Teplice
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Mareček was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Teplice, 3‑1 the final word against Pribram in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matěj Pulkrab, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Matyáš Kozák was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.22 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Matěj Pulkrab
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
John Auta, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.19
A mark of 8.19 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Matouš Trmal in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Teplice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 3‑2 win over Jihlava, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daniel Mareček 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Matouš Trmal
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Matyáš Kozák was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abdourahman Badamosi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Teplice 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$240.0K was the most the club would pay and Dukla Prague were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Shammasu Muhammed has just signed for Teplice, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Daniel Mareček 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marek Beránek 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Three points for Teplice, 2‑0 the final word against Zlin in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Teplice did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Matouš Trmal
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $790.0K sale of Jan Fortelný
He is going to Sparta Prague, the club has $790.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
John Auta, 20, steals the show — 7.77
Marked 7.77 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Teplice asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Viktoria Plzen wanted more than $2.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sparta Prague pay $790.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Teplice
Matouš Trmal 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Teplice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Mareček 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
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matěj Pulkrab commits to Teplice for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Matouš Trmal 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Teplice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Mareček 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
John Auta beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match1 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Mlada Boleslav, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Matouš Trmal 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Daniel Mareček’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Teplice are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Adam Vydra to a room that had heard them before.