Marked for Cody Strootman
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces9 Oct 2034
The mood at Sibenik 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.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jay Williams and Sibenik agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Match7 Oct 2034
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Šimunović, and the manager let it.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Sibenik, and it is a cruel one.
Squad9 Oct 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Maro Mrndže's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Artem Korzh could not find anything
5.71. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Sep 2034
Diego Sekulić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sibenik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Luka Šimunović 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.
Match16 Sep 2034
Three points for Sibenik, 1‑0 the final word against Cibalia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
“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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Kacper Konieczny 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Sep 2034
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Danijel Đurić has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Market18 Sep 2034
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sibenik money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces11 Sep 2034
The mood at Sibenik 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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.77, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Đurić 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.
Match9 Sep 2034
It needed Danijel Đurić to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against NK Varazdin, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad11 Sep 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cody Strootman, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
5.55. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibenik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market21 Aug 2034
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sibenik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad21 Aug 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Danijel Đurić 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.
Match19 Aug 2034
Sesvete left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces14 Aug 2034
The mood at Sibenik 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
A one-man rearguard from Oleh Mozil
There were 6 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.
Market14 Aug 2034
Niko Pasalic hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Aug 2034
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Mario Brekalo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Benjamin Gasman 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Đurić 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 ratings14 Aug 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jul 2034
Sibenik are in real trouble now
Position 8, 20 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jul 2034
Diego Sekulić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Oleh Mozil 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Tobias Johansen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Danijel Đurić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The numbers do not look good at Sibenik
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market3 Jul 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sibenik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Benjamin Gasman 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.
Squad3 Jul 2034
A move Josip Babic would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Josip Babic is living that version at Sibenik, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Đurić 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
Wages eat 87% of everything Sibenik earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
Sibenik sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Market3 Jul 2034
Sibenik shop where it costs nothing
Josip Babic signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jun 2034
Luka Šimunović damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
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.
Match12 Jun 2034
Sibenik sink to position 8
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jun 2034
Diego Sekulić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Oleh Mozil 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Danijel Đurić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2034
Luka Šimunović damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
The numbers do not look good at Sibenik
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad5 Jun 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Šimunović and Sibenik agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Oleh Mozil 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.
Market5 Jun 2034
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sibenik will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 May 2034
Luka Šimunović damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Match15 May 2034
Every point is an argument now for Sibenik
Position 8 and 20 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.
Squad15 May 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 May 2034
Luka Šimunović damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Boardroom8 May 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Domagoj Vlasic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 May 2034
“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.
Boardroom8 May 2034
The numbers do not look good at Sibenik
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Boardroom8 May 2034
An order from above at Sibenik: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad8 May 2034
Benjamin Gasman 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.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Đurić 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.
Squad8 May 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maro Mrndže commits to Sibenik for another 3 years.
Market8 May 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luka Šimunović
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Apr 2034
Sibenik are in real trouble now
Position 8, 20 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad17 Apr 2034
“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 Sibenik know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luka Šimunović
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Apr 2034
“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.
Boardroom10 Apr 2034
Sibenik counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Sibenik now.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Luka Šimunović 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.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Danijel Đurić 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.
Squad10 Apr 2034
The manager makes an example of Marco Russo
“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
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luka Šimunović
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match20 Mar 2034
Sibenik are in real trouble now
Position 8, 20 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Benjamin Gasman 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luka Šimunović
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Mar 2034
Diego Sekulić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom13 Mar 2034
Sibenik counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Sibenik now.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Oleh Mozil 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Paizinho 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.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Gleb Knyazev 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Feb 2034
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom13 Feb 2034
Sibenik counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Sibenik now.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sibenik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Oleh Mozil 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Danijel Đurić 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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
The medical room confirms 40 days on the sidelines for Goran Kasalo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Shota Okriashvili
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Jan 2034
Diego Sekulić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Cody Strootman: 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.” Sibenik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Oleh Mozil 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.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paizinho 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.
Market9 Jan 2034
Istra 1961 are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sibenik will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Dec 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Shota Okriashvili
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Dec 2033
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sibenik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Benjamin Gasman 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.