Marked for Panagiotis Kolias
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Zdralovi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market9 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Mladost Zdralovi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Rudes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Osijek have kept their man, and Mladost Zdralovi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Arapović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Mateo Dunić 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 dugout9 Jul 2029
Jure Kavelj 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.
Market9 Jul 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.
Market9 Jul 2029
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Mladost Zdralovi could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Mladost Zdralovi boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 Jun 2029
Josip Dizdar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mladost Zdralovi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market25 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Mladost Zdralovi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jun 2029
Add another name to the list: HNK Gorica have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Roko Mavra. The answer from Mladost Zdralovi has not changed — yet.
Squad25 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 Mladost Zdralovi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roko Mavra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Mladost Zdralovi asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout25 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.
Market25 Jun 2029
The clock does Dorian Jakupak’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Mladost Zdralovi could ask drops and the wages Dorian Jakupak can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Sep 2028
Mario Kordić-Gružić 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 Sep 2028
Filip Holjevac arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Filip Holjevac has, at Mladost Zdralovi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Roko Mavra 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Kauã Alves
“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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
98% of the income goes out in wages at Mladost Zdralovi
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market11 Sep 2028
Panagiotis Kolias is 19, and Mladost Zdralovi have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Mladost Zdralovi are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market11 Sep 2028
Hayden Henry is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mladost Zdralovi has been clear about where Hayden Henry stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market11 Sep 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dorian Jakupak signs something — a contract at Mladost Zdralovi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.