The Rudes Chronicle
Squad15 Nov 2027
Kristijan Lovrić 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Vedran Celjak 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 Vedran Celjak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Rudes take on the side everybody is chasing
Orijent 1919 arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Allyson has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rudes 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Filip Holjevac 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
The Karlo Kralj talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rudes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Stefan Vukić remains an outsider
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Rudes would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market15 Nov 2027
Rudes put Merlin Hadzi up for sale
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Merlin Hadzi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market15 Nov 2027
Rudes and Marko Simunovic are talking past each other
“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.
In brief
- Squad “I want to play”: Filip Holjevac speaks
- Loan watch The goals keep arriving from Josip Bralić’s exile
- Loan watch 3 goals on loan for Luka Bilandžić