Marked for Lars Becker
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Beltinci can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Beltinci may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Apr 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beltinci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
$629.6K of the owner's money at Beltinci
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.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
“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.
Market7 Apr 2036
“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.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
Žan Trivunčević loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Žan Trivunčević's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad7 Apr 2036
The captaincy has been taken off Alen Korošec. Beltinci will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
Alen Korošec 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Beltinci
Marin Rantaša 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.
Squad10 Mar 2036
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Beltinci know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market10 Mar 2036
“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.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Words at Beltinci training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Blanchard 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.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
Luka Brkić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Beltinci, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Mar 2036
Lars Becker told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lars Becker has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Beltinci.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
“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.
Market10 Mar 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marin Rantaša’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
Miguel Cuesta has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Beltinci 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
The scrutiny sharpens at Beltinci
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Beltinci is running low.
Market28 Jan 2036
Ciprian Hagi 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 Beltinci can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
Beltinci asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
182% of the income goes out in wages at Beltinci
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.
Player ratings28 Jan 2036
Miguel Cuesta ran the middle of the pitch — 6.97
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.97, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match26 Jan 2036
Brinje Grosuplje left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
The manager makes an example of Lars Becker
“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.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Jan 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beltinci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jan 2036
“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.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2036
Everything agreed with ND Gorica, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Beltinci
Marin Rantaša 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.
Match12 Jan 2036
Still nobody has beaten Beltinci
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2036
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.
Market14 Jan 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Beltinci, another week without a signature from Luka Brkić.
Loan watch14 Jan 2036
The goals keep arriving from Petar Skubic’s exile
10 goals in 23 games at Triglav Kranj — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Beltinci updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Match12 Jan 2036
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Dec 2035
Age has not caught Alen Korošec yet — 7.88
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Dec 2035
“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 Beltinci, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Dec 2035
Beltinci cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad24 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Beltinci
Tim Matanovič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match22 Dec 2035
NK Krka made Beltinci work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom24 Dec 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Beltinci is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
The manager makes an example of Lars Becker
“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.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Nov 2035
The wait goes on for Beltinci
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.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market26 Nov 2035
“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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Marin Rantaša 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Christos Palaiologou is living that version at Beltinci, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom26 Nov 2035
Beltinci cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Lars Becker 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Too much change too quickly at Beltinci
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Nov 2035
No end in sight to Beltinci's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Beltinci has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Tim Matanovič 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.
Match12 Nov 2035
Beltinci at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 9, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Match10 Nov 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Words at Beltinci training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karl Berg 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.
Market12 Nov 2035
“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.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Nov 2035
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Beltinci lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Nov 2035
The wait goes on for Beltinci
6 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.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
Robert Brekalo: 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.” Beltinci have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Nov 2035
Bas Dumfries has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Beltinci they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words exchanged at Beltinci
Tim Matanovič 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
The owner puts $536.4K into Beltinci
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Match3 Nov 2035
3 matches without a goal for Beltinci
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Wages swallow 203% of the Beltinci income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Beltinci are $14.5M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad5 Nov 2035
No place for Lars Becker in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Beltinci are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Oct 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market29 Oct 2035
Ciprian Hagi 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 Beltinci can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Oct 2035
5 matches without a win for Beltinci
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Beltinci are no longer polite ones.
Squad29 Oct 2035
A falling-out at Beltinci
Alen Korošec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Oct 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
The manager makes an example of Luka Brkić
“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.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad29 Oct 2035
8 new faces, and Beltinci are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.