Marked for David Đokić
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jul 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Jul 2029
Rayan Yaslam 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 Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Rayan Yaslam: 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.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ognjen Bondžulić is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad2 Jul 2029
At 21, Ognjen Bondžulić is already the best thing here
An average of 7.26 in a first team he is several years too young for. Mladost Lucani have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jun 2029
Vojvodina come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mladost Lucani did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Szymon Piszczek is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 May 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mladost Lucani may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Apr 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Željko Samčović for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Mladost Lucani will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Apr 2029
A fracture rules Evgeny Kharin out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ural will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Apr 2029
David Đokić: 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.” Ural have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Ilja Ishkov has agreed to leave Ural for nothing
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2029
“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 Mladost Lucani know it.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Rayan Yaslam wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Mladost Lucani now know that too.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Nikola Boranijašević 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
The shirt still fits. Aleksy Rokosz is back at Mladost Lucani, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Leo Tafaj 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Dušan Cvetinović 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jovan Ćirić had Mladost Lucani level again within 3 minutes, and IMT never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The team sheet said everything about Halid Alghoul
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 Halid Alghoul.
Market29 Jan 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Mladost Lucani will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jan 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match13 Jan 2029
Beaten 0‑3 by Partizan, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market15 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Jan 2029
He is 21, he is averaging 7.21, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Nikola Boranijašević 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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Market15 Jan 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Mladost Lucani will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Mladost Lucani lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
No sign of nerves from Ognjen Bondžulić at 21 — 9.33
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ognjen Bondžulić did not need any: 9.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for David Đokić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Đokić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mladost Lucani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match30 Dec 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Mladost Lucani did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Nikola Boranijašević 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 ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihailo Todosijević 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“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 Mladost Lucani know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ognjen Krsmanović damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Dec 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikola Boranijašević and Mladost Lucani agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Mihailo Todosijević 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.
Match2 Dec 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mladost Lucani and Spartak Subotica in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.96, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Željko Samčović, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ognjen Krsmanović damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Uğur Çiftçi 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 Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 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 Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Irfan Hadžić
“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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Shots: 5, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Marked 5.41, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Nov 2028
Ognjen Krsmanović damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Age has not caught Irfan Hadžić yet — 7.82
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market6 Nov 2028
David Đokić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mladost Lucani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Nikola Boranijašević 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihailo Todosijević 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Cukaricki left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Boranijašević, and the manager let it.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Oct 2028
Uğur Çiftçi 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 Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mladost Lucani may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match14 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Mihailo Todosijević 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.
Squad16 Oct 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“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 Mladost Lucani know it.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Match14 Oct 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. IMT defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Philip Rejnhold: 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.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
No sign of nerves from Ognjen Bondžulić at 21 — 8.85
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ognjen Bondžulić did not need any: 8.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Oct 2028
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.
Market9 Oct 2028
David Đokić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mladost Lucani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“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; Mladost Lucani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Nikola Boranijašević 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 terraces9 Oct 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ognjen Bondžulić 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Sep 2028
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Sep 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 Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Sep 2028
Crvena Zvezda left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihailo Todosijević 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Boranijašević, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Daisuke Sakai dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A mark of 5.51 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Sep 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 Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 9.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad11 Sep 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Nemanja Milojević has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mladost Lucani 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.
Match9 Sep 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2028
A 1‑4 beating by Spartak Subotica was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mihailo Todosijević did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match19 Aug 2028
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.
Squad21 Aug 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ognjen Krsmanović is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Nikola Boranijašević 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Filip Žunić has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The terraces21 Aug 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mihailo Todosijević 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mladost Lucani may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Aug 2028
324 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Mladost Lucani know what they have.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ognjen Bondžulić is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market7 Aug 2028
Ural come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mladost Lucani did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match5 Aug 2028
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“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; Mladost Lucani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match5 Aug 2028
4 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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jul 2028
Rayan Yaslam 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 Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mihailo Todosijević is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 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 Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A last season at home is what Rayan Yaslam is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Jul 2028
3 matches without a goal for Mladost Lucani
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad31 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Željko Samčović
“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.
Match29 Jul 2028
0‑1 to Vojvodina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
The chances came and went for Irfan Hadžić
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.