Stelios Laban

Central Midfielder - Free Agent
30 Sep 2029
Sunday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 38 Awards Matches History

Marked for Stelios Laban

138 Edition

The Varteks Post

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces19 Mar 2029

Supporters organise against the Varteks 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.

Squad19 Mar 2029

Nikola Macolić 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 Varteks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad19 Mar 2029

A row about effort at Varteks

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emile Callemeyn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom19 Mar 2029

123% of the income goes out in wages at Varteks

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.

The dugout19 Mar 2029

Filip Pirš 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.

The dugout19 Mar 2029

Emile Callemeyn 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 Emile Callemeyn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

Back issues
132 Edition

The Varteks Post

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match3 Feb 2029

The wait goes on for Varteks

22 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.

Boardroom5 Feb 2029

Varteks spell it out for Daniel Kramaric

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Daniel Kramaric has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market5 Feb 2029

Lokomotiva Zagreb come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Varteks did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market5 Feb 2029

Stelios Laban puts it in writing

“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 Varteks, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout5 Feb 2029

Alexandros Bardas says Varteks 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.

Boardroom5 Feb 2029

Varteks close the window on a squad of their own making

4 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Transfer targets5 Feb 2029

Ante Bralić turns down Varteks

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Hajduk Split keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad5 Feb 2029

Words exchanged at Varteks

Nikola Macolić 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.

Boardroom5 Feb 2029

The owner puts $153.8K into Varteks

This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.

In brief

110 Edition

The Varteks Post

4 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces4 Sep 2028

The mood at Varteks 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 Sep 2028

The unthinkable, invoiced: Marko Cukon sold

Lokomotiva Zagreb arrived with $210.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.

The terraces4 Sep 2028

A $210.0K sale, and a town that did not want it

Marko Cukon has gone, the accounts have $210.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.

Market4 Sep 2028

Stelios Laban asks to leave Varteks

“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.

Boardroom4 Sep 2028

Window shuts: 17 in, 11 out at Varteks

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Transfer targets4 Sep 2028

The paperwork begins on Niko Željković

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Varteks have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets4 Sep 2028

No thanks: Luka Hodak rejects the move

Varteks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad4 Sep 2028

Alexandros Bardas gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alexandros Bardas has just signed for Varteks, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad4 Sep 2028

A falling-out at Varteks

Nikola Macolić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief