Marked for Marc Hernández
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Mar 2031
Abdulrahman Taiwo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Mar 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Faïss Mahamat-Bindi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Spartak Trnava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Tomič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Mar 2031
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Spartak Trnava know it.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
When it matters, Libor Holík plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sulyman Krubally, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Michal Tomič called up by his country
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Spartak Trnava that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Market24 Mar 2031
The Šimon Faško story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Šimon Faško signs something — a contract at Spartak Trnava or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Mar 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Mercadante
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Trnava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Abdulrahman Taiwo 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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Michal Tomič 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 dugout3 Mar 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
The manager makes an example of Joshua Frau
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Dec 2030
Mario Mercadante damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Match23 Dec 2030
Spartak Trnava refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad23 Dec 2030
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Dominik Sestak
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Spartak Trnava will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad23 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Tomič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
“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 dugout23 Dec 2030
Stefan Skrbo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Spartak Trnava 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.
Market23 Dec 2030
The Libor Holík talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Spartak Trnava know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market23 Dec 2030
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Spartak Trnava could get for him.