Marked for David Puclin
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Varazdin can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $1.2M sale of Josip Silić
He is going to NK Osijek, the club has $1.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad5 Jul 2027
55 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Krylya Sovetov, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market5 Jul 2027
NK Osijek pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad5 Jul 2027
David Puclin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The step up is real for Paizinho
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout29 Mar 2027
David Puclin 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Mario Marina 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Iuri Tavares keeps appearing in other people's back pages. NK Varazdin say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Luka Škaričić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at NK Varazdin 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
Market29 Mar 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Josip Silić may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iuri Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
NK Varazdin asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dorian Fraeyman and NK Varazdin agree another 4 years.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Barać, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Mario Marina knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mario Marina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Nobody at NK Varazdin 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at NK Varazdin has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market8 Feb 2027
The name of Tomislav Duvnjak keeps appearing in other people's back pages. NK Varazdin say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Christian Ilić has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Varazdin can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Domagoj Begonja: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Varazdin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Iuri Tavares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Silvio Ilinković again, and this time the name on the line is Segesta. NK Varazdin are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Córdoba SdE have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Puclin, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Petar Bočkaj knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petar Bočkaj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Silvio Ilinković has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at NK Varazdin 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
NK Varazdin have made Roberto Punčec available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tomislav Duvnjak 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at NK Varazdin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iuri Tavares 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Puclin, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Mario Marina knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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 Silvio Ilinković is on it.
Market28 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Varazdin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout21 Dec 2026
David Puclin: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Varazdin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Iuri Tavares 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Mario Marina knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ivan Canjuga's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market21 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomislav Duvnjak signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tomislav Duvnjak 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 3‑1 win over NK Osijek, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Luka Mamić
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The team sheet said everything about Matej Vuk
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Matej Vuk.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Lovro Majkić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Petar Kramaric kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Chances created: 9. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Kerim Alajbegović at 19 — 7.99
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kerim Alajbegović did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Iuri Tavares 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lovro Majkić has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Kerim Alajbegović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Varazdin.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 20 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Matej Vuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad19 Oct 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The form table has caught Lovro Majkić
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation NK Varazdin did not have in the autumn.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aleksa Latković. 2‑0 against Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Ilić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Matej Vuk at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at NK Varazdin.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is David Puclin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NK Varazdin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stipe Jurić commits to NK Varazdin for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Iuri Tavares 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
NK Varazdin asked and FC Augsburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of David Puclin
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.40, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. NK Varazdin had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad14 Sep 2026
NK Varazdin are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Petar Kramaric was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the NK Varazdin dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Iuri Tavares takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iuri Tavares provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Grêmio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Iuri Tavares 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Iuri Tavares’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to NK Varazdin.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to PAOK: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Istra 1961 for Domagoj Begonja 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to NK Varazdin's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at NK Varazdin has to find a result from somewhere.
Market24 Aug 2026
Mario Mladenovski has left for Istra 1961 in a $800.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Robby McCrorie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Iuri Tavares 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
NK Varazdin asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
NK Varazdin have made the call to Grêmio. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Chinonso Offor is in the works
NK Varazdin have made the call to Baltika. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.