The Varteks Post
Market21 Jul 2031
Jens Linnes puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Varteks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
The paperwork begins on Ivan Paunović
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Varteks have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
No thanks: Ante Bralić rejects the move
Varteks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom21 Jul 2031
Graduation day at Varteks
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
HNK Gorica tell Varteks: Marko Jug is not for sale
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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Šmíd 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.
Market21 Jul 2031
Varteks promote Tin Benko from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tin Benko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market21 Jul 2031
One of our own: Andrej Cop joins the Varteks first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andrej Cop is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market21 Jul 2031
Mario Lovren steps up from the Varteks academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Lovren has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.