Marked for Gregor Hoffmann
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slavia Kroměříž lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
David Němeček: 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.” Slavia Kroměříž have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tomáš Solil 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 Slavia Kroměříž this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Robert Bartolomeu 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 dugout20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomáš Jelínek, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Felix Irorere asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market20 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Kroměříž know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market20 Mar 2028
Still no signature from Lukáš Holík
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Slavia Kroměříž could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Slavia Kroměříž lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Mar 2028
Every point is an argument now for Slavia Kroměříž
Position 15 and 27 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market13 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Kroměříž is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Tomáš Jelínek: 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.” Slavia Kroměříž have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Lukáš Holík 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Denis Hanzelka 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.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Slavia Kroměříž now.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gregor Hoffmann, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Ibrahim Aldin asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Sep 2027
The mood at Slavia Kroměříž 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
8 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tomáš Solil 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Philippov, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Bartolomeu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Slavia Kroměříž close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 9 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 targets6 Sep 2027
Slavia Kroměříž had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Jablonec, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tomáš Solil 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Gregor Hoffmann gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gregor Hoffmann has just signed for Slavia Kroměříž, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Slavia Kroměříž asked and Dukla Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Justin Araujo Wilson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Hanzelka, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Slavia Kroměříž are still strangers to each other
7 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.