Jan Kovačič 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nemanja Kolarević signs something — a contract at Ilirija 1911 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Jan Kovačič 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.
This is not rotation. Michell Youssef has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ilirija 1911 is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Ilirija 1911 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michał Kołodziejski 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ilirija 1911 has been clear about where Michał Kołodziejski stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ilirija 1911 can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ilirija 1911 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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; Ilirija 1911 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Ilirija 1911 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Kruljac 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ilirija 1911, another week without a signature from Franklyn Gordon.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ilirija 1911, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Zach Sclare's mistake
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ilirija 1911 has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces17 Sep 2029
Supporters organise against the Ilirija 1911 board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nemanja Kolarević did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jaša Hribar, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Tim Kruljac 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ilirija 1911 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.