Marked for Marcel Hoffmann
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Nov 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Nov 2035
Only the photograph left for Nikola Modric
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Modric will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orijent 1919 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Matija Kablar 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Lovro Jelavić
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Orijent 1919 will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and René Sauer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Nov 2035
“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; Orijent 1919 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Matija Kablar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 Nov 2035
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Oct 2035
Solin go through and Orijent 1919 go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market22 Oct 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad22 Oct 2035
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market22 Oct 2035
Only the photograph left for Nikola Modric
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Modric will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orijent 1919 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Petar Pfeifer 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Matija Kablar 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.
Match20 Oct 2035
It finished 2‑0, and it was Scott Hamilton’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Orijent 1919.
Player ratings22 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
Elia Giani 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Oct 2035
“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 Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Orijent 1919 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad8 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Oct 2035
Lucko left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Oct 2035
René Sauer 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.
Match8 Oct 2035
Position 8, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad8 Oct 2035
The award goes to Matija Kablar, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Market8 Oct 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces1 Oct 2035
The mood at Orijent 1919 has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market1 Oct 2035
Nikola Modric 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 Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Oct 2035
Up for the corner, and Matija Kablar delivers — 7.76
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matija Kablar scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Petar Pfeifer 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.
Match29 Sep 2035
A 1‑0 win over Istra 1961, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Marcel Hoffmann 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 dugout1 Oct 2035
“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.
Market1 Oct 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matija Kablar
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orijent 1919 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
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.
Market18 Jun 2035
The shirt still fits. Matej Momčilovski is back at Orijent 1919, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
$19.0K on the table at Istra 1961. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
$10.0K was the most the club would pay and HNK Vukovar 1991 were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boardroom18 Jun 2035
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Josip Sikirica 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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Matija Kablar 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.
Market18 Jun 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.