“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Karviná have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Karviná can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nino Milić 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 Emmanuel Ayaosi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Karviná game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stripfing runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fayçal Konaté did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 21 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.
He is 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristián Vallo 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 Karviná this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” David Vydra on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
14 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The offer from Ismaily for Chinonso Emeka 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.
Karviná had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AEK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Karviná training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Prebsl 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.
Karviná and Pardubice have settled on $780.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Karviná can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Karviná go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Karviná training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristián Vallo 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.
Tomáš Kott 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.
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Makhachkala: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kahuan Vinícius is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Alan Do Marcolino 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Matěj Valenta 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Ústí nad Labem is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ústí nad Labem, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Ústí nad Labem did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Denny Samko 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michal Provod after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Banik Ostrava B? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ústí nad Labem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Ústí nad Labem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullahi Ibrahim Bewene 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tomáš Kott has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ústí nad Labem have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michal Provod after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Ústí nad Labem 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.
At 22 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.
Position 11, 15 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.
21 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ústí nad Labem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denny Samko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daniel Richter’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ústí nad Labem needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alan Do Marcolino signs something — a contract at Ústí nad Labem or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
1 for Tomáš Kott, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ústí nad Labem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout9 Nov 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.” Michal Provod chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
4 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.
Denny Samko 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ústí nad Labem can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Nalezinek, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑2 Michal Provod left the room before anybody could ask which.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ústí nad Labem know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ústí nad Labem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout28 Sep 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Michal Provod to a room that had heard them before.
Artis Brno next, and one man in the Ústí nad Labem dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ústí nad Labem know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Ústí nad Labem have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.