It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
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.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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 The request is on a desk at FK Senica, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FK Senica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Samuele Righetti 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FK Senica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
MSK Zilina will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FK Senica were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.82 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.06 for the rest of it.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
In brief
Player ratingsLukáš Mikulaj was on a different afternoon to everybody else
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FK Senica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FK Senica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Albert Pekarik is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bulat Tsaliev has his answer from FK Senica; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FK Senica, another week without a signature from Shahmurza Adyrbekov.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FK Senica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FK Senica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FK Senica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FK Senica they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Ledio Beqja 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.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FK Senica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The deal that would have taken Bulat Tsaliev to MFK Michalovce has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to FK Senica with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FK Senica they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matej Oravec 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.
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.
In brief
SquadPeter Lobotka stands down from international duty
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bohdan Porokh is living that version at FK Senica, and it tends to show in the first month.
Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Patrik Iľko 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.
Add another name to the list: MFK Ruzomberok have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Albert Pekarik. The answer from FK Senica has not changed — yet.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FK Senica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bulat Tsaliev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FK Senica the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 goal that put MFK Michalovce ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when FK Senica equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Dylann Kam obliged against MFK Ruzomberok. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is FK Senica.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.17 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Dylann Kam decided nobody was going anywhere. MFK Ruzomberok had no time left to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bulat Tsaliev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FK Senica the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matej Oravec 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.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ricuenio Kewal. 1‑0 against MFK Skalica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
0‑3 to Podbrezova, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The terraces21 Aug 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 45 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The bid was some way short and FK Senica did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
Add another name to the list: Spartak Myjava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bulat Tsaliev. The answer from FK Senica has not changed — yet.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FK Senica and DAC Dunajska Streda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Maxim Osipenko 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.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. FK Senica found something the first half had given no notice of, and Spartak Myjava could not hold what they had.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 4‑3 win over Spartak Myjava, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Hrosovsky 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.
Add another name to the list: MFK Ruzomberok have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Albert Pekarik. The answer from FK Senica has not changed — yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FK Senica can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from MFK Ruzomberok for Albert Pekarik was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mate Brekalo has just signed for FK Senica, and for once the answer mattered.
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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
10 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Nobody at FK Senica 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Filip Nemec's mistake
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FK Senica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mateo Sabo is living that version at FK Senica, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from MFK Ruzomberok for Albert Pekarik was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FK Senica can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Spartak Myjava for Bulat Tsaliev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FK Senica they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Matej Oravec 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.
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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FK Senica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FK Senica they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
SquadWords at FK Senica training over how hard people work