Marked for Eliott Hérault
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Téo Barišić reports back to Cibalia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Cibalia close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Cibalia
Dario Melnjak 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Filip Mekić
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Cibalia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dražen Bagarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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; Cibalia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Looking ahead6 Sep 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is David Žabec’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cibalia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market6 Sep 2027
The David Žabec story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Žabec signs something — a contract at Cibalia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Jul 2027
Marijan Šuto 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 Cibalia can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Jul 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jul 2027
Cibalia say no — this time
The offer from Sesvete for Petar Mišić 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Match24 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Cibalia
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Jul 2027
David Žabec 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Cibalia
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 May 2027
Marko Galić honoured for the season
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cibalia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Cibalia
Fran Ćavar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Mensah Govou arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mensah Govou has, at Cibalia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Cibalia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Stapić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
Jack Armer 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.
Market31 May 2027
Eliott Hérault is 20, and Cibalia have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market31 May 2027
Cibalia have made Fran Ćavar available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout31 May 2027
Filip Mekić 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 Cibalia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout31 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.