It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tulevik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Karol Antonov commits to Tulevik for another 3 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Tulevik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rome Veske 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.
Karol Antonov is 14, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at Tulevik 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.50 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tulevik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 14 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Liliu Igonen chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Parnu? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Sander Klavan
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tulevik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Tulevik asked and Sillamae Kalev said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tulevik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Tulevik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaupo Kruusmäe 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.
Nobody at Tulevik 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tulevik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Enrique Esono 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.
“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 Tulevik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Enrique Esono 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sander Klavan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Tulevik 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 manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.