335 appearances across 21 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Michal Fukala 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.
“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 Samuel Šigut.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Zlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
The deal with Polissia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Valentyn Rubchynskyi 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.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Valentyn Rubchynskyi 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 Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
8 new faces, and Zlin are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Everything agreed with Slovan Liberec, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Zlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Zlin have made the call to Sparta Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Prince Mbatshi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zlin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Fukala 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.
Augustin Drakpe 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Davit Hakobyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Nobody at Zlin 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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. El Hadji Latyr N'Diaye may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
14 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Zlin know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Tijani 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Michal Fukala 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tom Ulbrich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlin can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zlin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Fukala 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.
“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 Zlin know it.
Matěj Slouk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakub Černín trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zlin and Slavia Prague B in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Tijani 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.
Augustin Drakpe 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.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Michal Cupák 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.
“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 Zlin, 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 Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Cupák 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Stanislav Dostál will call it something else in private.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zlin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Zlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Michal Fukala 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Cupák 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.
It needed Daniel Hais to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Slavia Kroměříž, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Matej Darida was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Zlin dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Hais knocks on the manager's door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonín Křapka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Position 1, 34 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Matej Darida on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
České Budějovice next, and one man in the Zlin dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Zlin would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nobody at Zlin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonín Křapka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pribram in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Zlin has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 Zlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matej Darida after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
20 seasons and 335 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlin can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Zlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlin can pretend not to have heard.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Zlin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
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.
A loan enquiry to Lausanne-Sport: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlin can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
A brace, and Stanley Kanu takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stanley Kanu provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zlin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Zlin hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ústí nad Labem pay $90.0K, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nazar Domchak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Zlin asked and Bohemians 1905 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tomáš Kocour 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Tom Ulbrich'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakub Kolář 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 Samuel Šigut signs something — a contract at Zlin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Artis Brno waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zlin is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Zlin heard it as anything else.
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.
Something was said to Jakub Kolář and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zlin are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Šigut trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Zlin would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zlin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Dinamo Brest for Daniel Hais 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.
22 goals in 25 games at Opava — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Zlin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Mohamed Azzi 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 had been thinking. Antonín Křapka 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Milan Knobloch reports back to Zlin with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo-BelAZ have kept their man, and Zlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlin can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“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 dugout7 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Matej Darida to a room that had heard them before.
Prince Chibuzor Emmanuel 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ondřej Kukučka has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
The dugoutMichal Cupák knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonín Křapka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
400 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Position 15, 11 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matej Darida after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutStanislav Dostál is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutMichal Cupák asks for a word with the manager