Marked for Andrej Ivanovic
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Sokol boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sokol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 May 2029
No signings allowed at Sokol
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom28 May 2029
The Sokol debt reaches $20.6M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Loan watch28 May 2029
“I watch every Sokol game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mashuk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad28 May 2029
“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; Sokol are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market28 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sokol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market28 May 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Apr 2029
Fedor Gusev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sokol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sokol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
122% of the income goes out in wages at Sokol
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market16 Apr 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikolay Poyarkov signs something — a contract at Sokol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Maxim Shiryaev 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
Sokol have made Artem Bykov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sokol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sokol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Sokol
Nikita Pechenkin 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 Apr 2029
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
“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 Sokol, and 0 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Sokol
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sokol is running low.
Market2 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sokol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sokol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$109.1K of the owner's money at Sokol
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
No signings allowed at Sokol
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The Sokol debt reaches $20.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Loan watch2 Apr 2029
“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 Sokol, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Market2 Apr 2029
He is 18, and nobody at Sokol signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“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
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Zoran Nižić 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 Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Bruno Zdunić
“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.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.83 on the card, and the Dugopolje support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Ivan Delić runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
The numbers do not look good at Dugopolje
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.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Match29 Jul 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Cibalia defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.