It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roko Cerić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Roko Cerić is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jan Kubacki has his answer from Hrvatski Dragovoljac; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Carlo Mateković’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hrvatski Dragovoljac has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hrvatski Dragovoljac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Piotr Holcel a promise
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvatski Dragovoljac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roko Cerić 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.08, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Position 1, 32 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Karlovac 1919 are out and Hrvatski Dragovoljac go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Mislav Cop, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.20
A mark of 8.20 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Giovanni Jerolimov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roko Cerić 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hrvatski Dragovoljac they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Mažar 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Šušković-Jakopac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Giovanni Jerolimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Filip Mažar 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Milan De Weerdt is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Mažar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Carlo Mateković. 2‑1 against Uljanik Pula, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $13.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Alexis Ugarte 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Leandro Yáñez 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mislav Cop and Hrvatski Dragovoljac agree another 3 years.
Tobias Keller 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Hrvatski Dragovoljac will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and both men came out saying it was fine.