Marked for Ignacio Coates
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Jun 2031
Kwadwo Annan 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 Zeleznicar Pancevo can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Everything agreed with Dubočica, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market16 Jun 2031
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Zeleznicar Pancevo heard it as anything else.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Vidić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Marko Ćurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jun 2031
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zeleznicar Pancevo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
Miguel Cruz 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Ignacio Coates, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
Avdo Spahić 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 Zeleznicar Pancevo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zeleznicar Pancevo is running low.
Market28 Apr 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Zeleznicar Pancevo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Apr 2031
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Velevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Avdo Spahić 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 Zeleznicar Pancevo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Ignacio Coates is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Oct 2030
Avdo Spahić 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 Zeleznicar Pancevo can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Oct 2030
7 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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zeleznicar Pancevo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Vidić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zeleznicar Pancevo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces7 Oct 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ognjen Alempijević has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zeleznicar Pancevo.
The dugout7 Oct 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.