Marked for Andrej Milanović
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout8 Oct 2029
Charly Keita: 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.” IMT have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Iván Martos commits to IMT for another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A falling-out at IMT
Nikola Skrobonja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Oct 2029
A bad afternoon for IMT against TSC
0‑1 to TSC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market8 Oct 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Luka Luković 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 dugout8 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Stefan Šapić
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces24 Sep 2029
Anger at IMT spills outside the ground
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.
The dugout24 Sep 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Andrej Milanović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Tempers go at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A row about effort at IMT
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Skrobonja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Sep 2029
Three points for IMT, 1‑0 the final word against Spartak Subotica in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Timothy Zechariah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Luka Luković
“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
Steady
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Branislav Mladenovic has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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 Sep 2029
A row about effort at IMT
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Skrobonja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Sep 2029
IMT cannot find the net
3 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrej Milanović and IMT agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Sep 2029
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Krstić, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
When it matters, Karl Fabien plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Aug 2029
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Jérémy Manzorro obliged against OFK Beograd. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is IMT.
The terraces27 Aug 2029
Anger at IMT spills outside the ground
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.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A brace, and Juninho takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juninho provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Andrej Milanović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 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.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
Joshua Baba says IMT went back on their word
“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.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. IMT have done the hard part with Milton Keynes Dons, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match25 Aug 2029
IMT cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Jul 2029
The mood at IMT has turned into something else
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.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” IMT may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Jul 2029
8 matches without a win for IMT
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around IMT are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Tempers go at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad30 Jul 2029
At 17 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Manchester City 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aleksandar Sedlar and IMT agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrej Milanović is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at IMT
Karl Fabien 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 targets9 Jul 2029
IMT offered $340.0K; Vojvodina said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Ibrahima Kébé has improved at 29, 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Monaco: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
A loan move for Uroš Zdjelarić is in the works
IMT have made the call to Partizan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
Iván Martos has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IMT 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
Uneasy
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. IMT have done the hard part with Spartak Subotica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jun 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 IMT this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnicki 1923 have kept their man, and IMT go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Aleksandar Sedlar 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. IMT will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market11 Jun 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at IMT, another week without a signature from Nikola Skrobonja.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
A promise honoured at IMT
Something was said to Nikola Skrobonja and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Iván Martos gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Iván Martos is on it.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrej Milanović, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces4 Jun 2029
The mood at IMT has turned into something else
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.
Market4 Jun 2029
The bid was some way short and IMT did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Jun 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Tempers go at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Sedlar 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 dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Baltika: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Radnicki Nis: 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 Jun 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ognjen Čančarević is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Apr 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 IMT can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Tempers go at IMT
Karl Fabien 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Sedlar 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 dugout2 Apr 2029
“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 dugout2 Apr 2029
Karl Fabien has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IMT 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Karl Fabien. IMT will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Vladimir Radočaj: 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.” IMT have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at IMT
Ognjen Čančarević 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefan Bastaja and IMT agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Luka Luković
“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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Aleksandar Sedlar has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IMT 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vicky Kiankaulua 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.
In brief
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Squad
A wage question at IMT
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The dugout
Joshua Udoh knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at IMT 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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A falling-out at IMT
Vladimir Radočaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The clock did what Radnik Surdulica would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the IMT support went home talking about one name.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andrej Milanović is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
Ognjen Čančarević has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at IMT 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.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for IMT
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
Tempers go at IMT
Iván Martos 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at IMT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vasilije Novičić is on it.