Marked for Dominik Mazuch
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Carrasco
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Ruzomberok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market11 Mar 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at MFK Ruzomberok, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A fracture rules Dominik Mazuch out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MFK Ruzomberok will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Emanuel Mammana 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Mojžiš 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 dugout11 Mar 2030
Dominik Kostka has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok 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.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
Marko Kelemen 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 MFK Ruzomberok, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Ruben Pinto
“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.
Market11 Mar 2030
“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
Squad4 Mar 2030
Daniel Carrasco 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A fracture rules Dominik Mazuch out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MFK Ruzomberok will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Emanuel Mammana 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Alexander Mojžiš 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.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Patrik Filippov
“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 dugout4 Mar 2030
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.
Market4 Mar 2030
“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.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Dani Homet 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jakub Badžgoň’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Feb 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Feb 2030
Markus Poom 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 MFK Ruzomberok can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Dominik Kostka 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Emanuel Mammana 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Too much change too quickly at MFK Ruzomberok
9 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 dugout25 Feb 2030
“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.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
Guram Arveladze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok 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.
Market25 Feb 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MFK Ruzomberok know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market25 Feb 2030
7 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs MFK Ruzomberok money.