90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zadar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Ivanković did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Damir Erceg 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristijan Majer 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marcelo Sucic was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. 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.
Damir Erceg 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Damir Erceg 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alvin Arrondel 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.
“I did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zadar and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Zadar 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.
A season-long audition: Dinamo Zagreb still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Zadar's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
He is 18, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Damir Barisic 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Damir Erceg 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.
Marked 9.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zadar, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Petar Petkovic signs something — a contract at Zadar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Petar Petkovic
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zadar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There were 9 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Damir Erceg 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.
“I watch every Zadar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Imotski runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Robert Boric could not do
Milan Bogdan damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Josip Corluka is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Damir Erceg 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.
Three points for Zadar, 3‑2 the final word against Lucko in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Kristijan Majer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.31. 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Lucko tried to reorganise, Zadar did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matías Contrera did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Matías Contrera 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bartol Kunert is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
1‑3 against Segesta, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Matías Contrera, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Hrvatski Dragovoljac have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Antonio Jakoliš 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Damir Erceg 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.
The name of Marcelo Sucic has come up in conversations Zadar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristijan Majer 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Petar Petkovic was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.07. 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.
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Martin Ivanovic has his answer from Zadar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.