Marked for Robert Duris
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Táborsko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zlin is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
$280.0K settles it between the clubs for David Skukan
Hradec Králové have accepted the money. What Zlin do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market18 Jun 2035
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jun 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 Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
A row about effort at Zlin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Hájek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Diego Muñoz
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A loan move for Václav Kadlec is in the works
Zlin have made the call to Karviná. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market18 Jun 2035
The name of Tadeáš Vachoušek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zlin say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
The clubs have shaken hands with Hradec Králové; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market11 Jun 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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
Zlin asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Tempers go at Zlin
Tadeáš Vachoušek 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.
Market11 Jun 2035
Add another name to the list: Dukla Prague have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jiri Soucek. The answer from Zlin has not changed — yet.
Squad11 Jun 2035
A row about effort at Zlin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Muñoz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jun 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pavel Cerny commits to Zlin for another 4 years.
Squad11 Jun 2035
A muscle injury sidelines Jakub Sima for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Zlin will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Market11 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 May 2035
Tempers go at Zlin
Tadeáš Vachoušek 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.
Squad14 May 2035
Diego Muñoz 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 dugout14 May 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 dugout14 May 2035
Yago Cantero is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout14 May 2035
Bisnat Mbala 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.
Market14 May 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zlin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market14 May 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zlin, another week without a signature from Pablo Lemos.
The dugout14 May 2035
Robert Duris gets picked when it counts
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 Robert Duris is on it.
Squad14 May 2035
Pablo Lemos has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zlin will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Apr 2035
Tempers go at Zlin
Tadeáš Vachoušek 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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Zlin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Hájek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Bienduga, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
Yago Cantero is still paying for one afternoon at Zlin
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market16 Apr 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zlin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
Robert Duris gets picked when it counts
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 Robert Duris is on it.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market16 Apr 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.
Market16 Apr 2035
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Zlin could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zlin may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Zlin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Muñoz 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words exchanged at Zlin
Alexander Cornelius 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 Mar 2035
Too much change too quickly at Zlin
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
Yago Cantero is still paying for one afternoon at Zlin
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market19 Mar 2035
No place for Jiri Soucek in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jiri Soucek has his answer from Zlin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market19 Mar 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zlin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.