Marked for Peter Schuster
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Apr 2036
Tempers go at Ušće
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
Squad21 Apr 2036
Words at Ušće training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Auwalu Ali Malam 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.
Boardroom21 Apr 2036
Embargo at Ušće
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.
Boardroom21 Apr 2036
The borrowing at Ušće reaches $19.0M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $19.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
Raul Gustavo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raul Gustavo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Veljko Ilic, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
When it matters, Sam Olsson 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 dugout21 Apr 2036
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market21 Apr 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ušće, another week without a signature from Miroslav Elzner.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Dec 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ušće this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Ušće training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Husein Sumbuljević 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.
Boardroom24 Dec 2035
Wages swallow 160% of the Ušće 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.
Match22 Dec 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Henry Wood. 1‑0 against Loznica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
“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.
Boardroom24 Dec 2035
The borrowing at Ušće reaches $19.0M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $19.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Player ratings24 Dec 2035
Orgest Ormenaj did the work nobody counts — 6.95
9 combined actions and 6.95. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Player ratings24 Dec 2035
The afternoon belonged to Henry Wood
A mark of 7.89, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Dec 2035
Ušće up to position 3
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad17 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Ušće
Đorđe Jovanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Dec 2035
“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 Ušće know it.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Words at Ušće training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Auwalu Ali Malam 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 terraces17 Dec 2035
At 22 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.
Match15 Dec 2035
It finished 2‑0, and it was Husein Sumbuljević’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ušće.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
Kwame Nuhu 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.
Player ratings17 Dec 2035
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Dec 2035
7 new faces, and Ušće 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.