Marked for Abdullah Al Hashmi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 May 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Perin in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad14 May 2029
Hans-Peter Tjervaag 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 dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nathan Roggen, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 May 2029
Jovan Đokić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jovan Đokić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 May 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FAP Priboj told Abdullah Al Hashmi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Nathan Roggen 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A row about effort at FAP Priboj
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Asaidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Apr 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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Filip Nović 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 FAP Priboj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Apr 2029
The Ali Hassan talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FAP Priboj know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Feb 2029
The wait goes on for FAP Priboj
4 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at FAP Priboj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans-Peter Tjervaag 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Nathan Roggen 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 dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Nović, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Veljko Rajkovic to a room that had heard them before.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and FAP Priboj will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Perin 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.
Market19 Feb 2029
The Ali Hassan talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FAP Priboj know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.