16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Rijeka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Rijeka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vinko Rozić 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Rijeka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Oreč 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.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Rijeka can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Rijeka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Oreč was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HNK Rijeka. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at HNK Rijeka can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 HNK Rijeka, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Rijeka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Vinko Rozić 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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HNK Rijeka know it.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Vinko Rozić is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marko Pajač
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Matej Jurić 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.
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 Ante Majstorović is on it.
Something was said to Staša Bastić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Vinko Rozić 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Matej Jurić 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 Ante Oreč is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tomislav Duvnjak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ante Matej Jurić signs something — a contract at HNK Rijeka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The offer from Kayserispor for Komnen Andrić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at HNK Rijeka until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Vinko Rozić 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Matej Jurić 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.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gzira United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Gzira United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
21 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces3 Jan 2028
The mood at Gzira United 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.
Position 12 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gzira United 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 Marc Van de Bovenkamp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Luca Mangion left the room before anybody could ask which.