“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 The request is on a desk at FAP Priboj, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FAP Priboj 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 FAP Priboj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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.
FAP Priboj asked and Vojvodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FAP Priboj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bartosz Bugała is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Emmanuel Okodugha 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 Nov 2027
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Cherny 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.
He is 18 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.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A mark of 9.16 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A 3‑1 win over OFK Beograd, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Cherny 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.
11 combined actions and 7.20. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Vladislav Cherny 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Jonas Naafo 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 Vladislav Cherny trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and FAP Priboj will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FAP Priboj, another week without a signature from Stefan Marjanović.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateja Premović signs something — a contract at FAP Priboj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FAP Priboj can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FAP Priboj can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Vukašin Đurđević 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dusan Ilic 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Branislav Krsticic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FAP Priboj will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FAP Priboj may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at FAP Priboj 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.
Vukašin Đurđević 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.
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.
FAP Priboj asked and Unirea Slobozia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 FAP Priboj, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Sokol 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.
Miloš Divac 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Naafo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Bartosz Bugała has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutAndrija Savić asks for a word with the manager
FAP Priboj had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Crvena Zvezda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnik Surdulica have kept their man, and FAP Priboj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FAP Priboj can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonas Naafo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 FAP Priboj will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FAP Priboj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Naafo 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FAP Priboj, another week without a signature from Evan Khouri.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FAP Priboj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Francis Antwi 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 Jonas Naafo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Tomić 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 Bartosz Bugała has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FAP Priboj can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Naafo 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 FAP Priboj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and FAP Priboj know it.
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 FAP Priboj would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Francis Antwi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Gastón Gerzel 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FAP Priboj will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Jonas Naafo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Radosław Wypart 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sergej Krsticic kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Tomić, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radosław Wypart 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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 21 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Marked 7.32 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, FAP Priboj had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sergej Krsticic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FAP Priboj dressing room was either.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Borac Čačak? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Slobodan Novaković 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergej Krsticic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrija Savić 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jagiellonia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bartosz Bugała is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Arka Gdynia held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Jagiellonia answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.