Marked for Ivan Mamut
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Mamut
“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
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Elvir Duraković 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” NK Varazdin may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Mitchel Bakker and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“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 NK Varazdin will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NK Varazdin told Novak Tepšić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Ivan Mamut 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Robby McCrorie commits to NK Varazdin for another 4 years.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Domagoj Begonja 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.
Market30 Nov 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.
The dugout30 Nov 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 Luka Posinković is on it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ivan Mamut has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Stipe Jurić 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
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 Mario Mladenovski has written the date down.
Market30 Nov 2026
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what NK Varazdin could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Mario Marina 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
NK Varazdin are still strangers to each other
5 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mario Mladenovski, and the manager let it.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Bruno Corluka chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad26 Oct 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. NK Varazdin lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Istra 1961, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mitchel Bakker and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Bruno Corluka could afford to be generous.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stipe Jurić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for NK Varazdin
Position 8 and 12 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Hajduk Split, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Mamut, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Bruno Corluka to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a NK Varazdin man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Luka Mamić was the best thing in any of them.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tomislav Duvnjak’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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Iuri Tavares keeps appearing in other people's back pages. NK Varazdin say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mitchel Bakker 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Silvio Ilinković commits to NK Varazdin for another 4 years.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iuri Tavares. 1‑0 against HNK Gorica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Mario Marina
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ivan Mamut 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
No place for Mateo Barać in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mateo Barać has his answer from NK Varazdin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bruno Corluka on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.