Marked for Leon Šipoš
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Christian Ilić arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christian Ilić has, at HNK Vukovar 1991, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Reggiana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milan Corluka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luka Grbic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fran Livaja has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Goran Bilic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match8 Aug 2026
Istra 1961 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Reggiana
Lorenzo Crisetig 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Pietro Pinelli 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The Thomas Henry story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thomas Henry signs something — a contract at Reggiana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ante Ćorić arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ante Ćorić has, at HNK Vukovar 1991, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Robin Gonzalez and HNK Vukovar 1991 agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
HNK Vukovar 1991 asked and Liverpool Montevideo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match1 Aug 2026
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luka Klanac 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at HNK Vukovar 1991, another week without a signature from Mario Tićinović.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Robin Gonzalez's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Reggiana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michele Castagnetti and Reggiana agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Matteo Rover 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Reggiana
Lorenzo Crisetig and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Leon Šipoš has come up in conversations Reggiana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Matteo Rover
Still no offer on the table, and Matteo Rover’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.