7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac has to find a result from somewhere.
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hrvatski Dragovoljac can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcelo Benko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dejan Colak has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hrvatski Dragovoljac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bartol Kunert 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
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 0‑2 René Krause left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dmytro Zudin did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
He is 21 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Boris Bogdan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Elvir Šehić and Hrvatski Dragovoljac agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Zadar were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Dmytro Zudin takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmytro Zudin provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Jan Cedilnik, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hrvatski Dragovoljac can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with NK Varazdin is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cadu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hrvatski Dragovoljac the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Giovanni Jerolimov 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.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bartol Kunert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hrvatski Dragovoljac have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Jan Cedilnik 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then HNK Vukovar 1991 scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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 Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Jan Cedilnik 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.
A loan enquiry to Lokomotiva Zagreb: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcelo Benko and Hrvatski Dragovoljac agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Freddie Fletcher is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
13 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Jan Cedilnik 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hrvatski Dragovoljac is running low.
“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 Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Jan Cedilnik 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.
6 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 easiest signature of my career.” Esteban Alfaro and Hrvatski Dragovoljac agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Alfie Henderson arrives at Hrvatski Dragovoljac with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac 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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Bartol Kunert’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Bartol Kunert 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tin Erceg is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hrvatski Dragovoljac are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Lucas Ozimec a promise
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Cedilnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 10 and 6 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Zubović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antonio Jakoliš and Hrvatski Dragovoljac agree another 2 years.
Giovanni Jerolimov 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Facundo Mera has just signed for Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and for once the answer mattered.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mislav Pasalic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Cedilnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Antonio Jakoliš has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hrvatski Dragovoljac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Jan Cedilnik 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dario Sivonjić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hrvatski Dragovoljac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with NK Osijek is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Ozimec and Hrvatski Dragovoljac agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hrvatski Dragovoljac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hrvatski Dragovoljac have done the hard part with Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Giovanni Jerolimov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Cedilnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Hrvatski Dragovoljac is running low.
Antonio Jakoliš and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Jan Cedilnik 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.
Hajduk Split have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Jan Cedilnik is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Lukas Zubović 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dario Sivonjić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 David Večerić has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bartol Kunert 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
Something was said to Marko Batur and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac 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.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Jan Cedilnik'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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Hrvatski Dragovoljac will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Giovanni Jerolimov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Cedilnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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 Karlo Kovačić.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Cedilnik 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.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
There were 8 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Dmytro Zudin, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac has to find a result from somewhere.
Dmytro Zudin scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sesvete, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jan Cedilnik 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.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 Duje Rebic left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mateo Budimir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Cedilnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Cedilnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 0‑3 Duje Rebic left the room before anybody could ask which.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac has to find a result from somewhere.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sturm Graz have kept their man, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jan Cedilnik 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Segesta? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Vukovar 1991 have kept their man, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Zubović 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.
6 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.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
0‑1 to Sesvete, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jan Cedilnik 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.
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 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.