Marked for Domen Stojanovic
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2027
No end in sight to NK Domzale's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at NK Domzale has to find a result from somewhere.
Market2 Aug 2027
Terms done: Jure Birsa is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and NK Maribor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NK Domzale is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad2 Aug 2027
15 days out for Domen Stojanovic after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Domzale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Aug 2027
The offer from Vitebsk for Svit Hočevar 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with NK Maribor, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Petar Ilicic and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sandi Lovric and NK Domzale agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
NK Domzale asked and NK Krsko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for NK Domzale
18 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 terraces26 Jul 2027
Supporters organise against the NK Domzale board
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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NK Domzale have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad26 Jul 2027
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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer from NK Celje for Sandi Lovric 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Benjamin Verbic: 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.” NK Domzale have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Rudar Velenje, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market26 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Marko Brkić joins from NK Krka in a deal worth $590.0K. Now comes the harder part.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Marko Brkić from NK Krka for $590.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
30 days out for Domen Stojanovic after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Domzale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$410.0K settles it between the clubs for Tien Goga
ND Gorica have accepted the money. What NK Domzale do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market19 Jul 2027
NK Krka come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and NK Domzale did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Vid Stojanovic 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luka Kampl 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kevin Lovric 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vid Elsnik 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at NK Domzale
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
37 days out for Domen Stojanovic after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Domzale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The paperwork begins on Luka Novak
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. NK Domzale have done the hard part with NK Krsko, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
NK Domzale asked and NK Celje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Vid Stojanovic 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The name of Andrej Kovacevic has come up in conversations NK Domzale were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Jack Armer
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Jan Vipotnik 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.