The mood at Blau-Weiß Linz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 12 and 3 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Meiko Wäschenbach scored, was marked 7.32, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ryan Ogam 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 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thomas Lienhart after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mlada Boleslav will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tincho 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.
3 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Mlada Boleslav go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 100th minute. Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz will replay every second of the added time for a week.
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at First Vienna is saying, and nobody at Blau-Weiß Linz is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blau-Weiß Linz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marko Fuchs is living that version at Blau-Weiß Linz, and it tends to show in the first month.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $169.5K of what Slavia Prague paid for Oliver Velich is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 20 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Timothy Ouma, marked 7.97, 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.
The offer from Vojvodina for Denis Višinský 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ebrima Singhateh is a Slavia Prague player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ebrima Singhateh has, at Slavia Prague, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Dukla Prague interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Matej Vydra keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jan Bačkovský will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dukla Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Dukla Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jakub Kadák 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.
“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; Dukla Prague are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dukla Prague have gone to Viktoria Žižkov with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mlada Boleslav will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mlada Boleslav people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Adam Ševínský again, and this time the name on the line is Slovan Liberec. Mlada Boleslav are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mlada Boleslav have gone to Slovacko with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Dukla Prague, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Adam Gabriel 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.
After 19 games, Slavia Prague finally taste it again
The first defeat in 19 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Jablonec; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FK Csíkszereda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Slovan Liberec have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Zima. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Ouma 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Viktoria Plzen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Marked 7.23 on 18 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The name of Michal Ševčík has come up in conversations Slavia Prague were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Mohammed Kamara 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Josef Koželuh has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Slavia Prague have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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 Blau-Weiß Linz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Blau-Weiß Linz have gone to Red Bull Salzburg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Blau-Weiß Linz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ignacio Lago was one of the reasons people came, and $21.3M does not replace that by itself.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slavia Prague have done the hard part with Viktoria Plzen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.55, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slavia Prague can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
SquadWords at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Ryan Ogam 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Blau-Weiß Linz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Seidl 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.
Blau-Weiß Linz have made the call to Slavia Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Blau-Weiß Linz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vojvodina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Slavia Prague asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Timothy Ouma 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 phone has started ringing about Maxim Marandici again, and this time the name on the line is KFC Komárno. Slavia Prague are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from České Budějovice for David Zima 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.
“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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Vojvodina have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Pech. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
Slavia Prague had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Club Brugge, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sahmkou Camara is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad2 Jul 2029
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sigma Olomouc keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ryan Ogam 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Blau-Weiß Linz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Reiter 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.
Blau-Weiß Linz asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Blau-Weiß Linz have made the call to Rapid Wien. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Blau-Weiß Linz would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 Jonas Winklhofer has written the date down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mlada Boleslav will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tincho 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.
Mlada Boleslav asked and Slavia Prague 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 name of Mikuláš Kubný has come up in conversations Mlada Boleslav were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josef Kolářík trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Dominik Reiter 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 Simon Seidl 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. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Blau-Weiß Linz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Agustín Lara and Blau-Weiß Linz agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Sigma Olomouc have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“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 Blau-Weiß Linz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Harald Postl 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.
Nobody at Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Joao Grimaldo 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Matúš Kmeť has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Slavia Prague have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jun 2029
7 new faces, and Slavia Prague 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jakub Kolísek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Banik Ostrava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Zima. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Slavia Prague will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Ouma 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.
Ignacio Lago 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.
Slavia Prague 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Ouma 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Pech trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Ouma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
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 Mohammed Kamara has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Slavia Prague that is a harder question to answer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fayçal Konaté signs something — a contract at Slavia Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Ouma 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.
David Pech 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.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
“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 Slavia Prague will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Slavia Prague have gone to Real Madrid with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Jablonec keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Michal Beran has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
$660.0K was the most the club would pay and Opava were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The chase for Oliver Velich ended with $200.0K changing hands and Zbrojovka Brno out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Slovan Liberec pay $770.0K, 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.
$9.7M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mlada Boleslav people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Slavia Prague, the club has $9.7M 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.
Ondřej Karafiát 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Josef Kolářík has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 2, 43 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Slavia Prague have gone to Jablonec with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dillon Hoogewerf has, at Slavia Prague, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mlada Boleslav 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 Mlada Boleslav, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slavia Prague is saying, and nobody at Mlada Boleslav is enjoying the guessing.
The name of Petr Kaulfus has come up in conversations Mlada Boleslav were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadWords at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and David Stanek obliged against Opava. 6‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Slavia Prague.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Jihlava had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
$9.7M on the table at Mlada Boleslav. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Lukáš Vorlický is a Slavia Prague player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The match ball belongs to David Stanek, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
David Stanek, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 8.97
A mark of 8.97 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denis Višinský provided it, and the 8.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything agreed with Viktoria Žižkov, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer from Opava for Vladimir Perišić 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.
In brief
MarketVasil Kušej wants to know where this is going
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Donát will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mlada Boleslav the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tincho 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Ilja Porokhov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Mlada Boleslav have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
3 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.
“I watch every Mlada Boleslav game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sparta Prague runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pavel Sykora after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
Squad18 Dec 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 Mlada Boleslav, another week without a signature from Adam Ševínský.
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 Ondřej Karafiát is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 dugout18 Dec 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Muhammed Suso
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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pardubice defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mlada Boleslav they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ondřej Karafiát 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 Tincho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Josef Kolářík, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.30
A mark of 8.30 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mlada Boleslav 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 Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 combined actions and 7.40. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match2 Dec 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Mlada Boleslav. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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 2‑0 win over České Budějovice, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mlada Boleslav have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Donát will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mlada Boleslav the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 watch every Mlada Boleslav game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sparta Prague runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 0‑1 Pavel Sykora left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Daniel Langhamer is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav 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 Tincho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mlada Boleslav. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ondřej Karafiát 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 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 watch every Mlada Boleslav game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mura runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 21 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Mlada Boleslav. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
David Pech was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mlada Boleslav can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Hradec Králové to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mlada Boleslav and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
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.
“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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Josef Kolářík
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Josef Kolářík has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mlada Boleslav have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mlada Boleslav they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 did not go to Sparta Prague to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mlada Boleslav and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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 0‑1 Pavel Sykora left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Daniel Langhamer is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Opava in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Ondřej Karafiát 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 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pavel Sykora on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Banik Ostrava next, and one man in the Mlada Boleslav dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mlada Boleslav, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Mlada Boleslav 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mlada Boleslav know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Dukla Prague next, and one man in the Mlada Boleslav dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ondřej Karafiát and Mlada Boleslav agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mlada Boleslav, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. David Pech scored in the 85th minute, Jablonec had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Mlada Boleslav took the lot.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Donát will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mlada Boleslav the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ondřej Karafiát and Mlada Boleslav agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Richardson Denzell 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tincho 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Mlada Boleslav will try not to make too much of it.
“I did not go to Sparta Prague to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mlada Boleslav and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vojtěch Vorel, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 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.
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Mlada Boleslav, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Josef Kolářík'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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mlada Boleslav they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mlada Boleslav, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 David Pech is on it.
Still no offer on the table, and Cristian Salvador’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mlada Boleslav have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He is going to Karviná, the club has $1.0M 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.
“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 Mlada Boleslav, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
Mlada Boleslav have gone to Viktoria Plzen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Solomon John 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.
Mlada Boleslav asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Opava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mikuláš Kubný. The answer from Mlada Boleslav has not changed — yet.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Adam Ševínský at his very best
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mlada Boleslav have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Karviná for Matouš Krulich 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mlada Boleslav can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav 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 Solomon John was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Teplice have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filip Černý. The answer from Mlada Boleslav has not changed — yet.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lukáš Havel and Mlada Boleslav agree another 2 years.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Táborsko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Mlada Boleslav know it.
Mlada Boleslav asked and Banik Ostrava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody at Mlada Boleslav 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Opava had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mlada Boleslav people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Mlada Boleslav, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Prostějov 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.
Ondřej Karafiát and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Solomon John 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Mlada Boleslav go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Mlada Boleslav are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Teplice had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Táborsko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Opava for Maxim Kalabus 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mlada Boleslav have done the hard part with Ústí nad Labem, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $765.9K — a club that wants Muhammed Suso enough to be asked twice.
Matouš Krulich 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.
Mlada Boleslav offered $140.0K; Slovan Liberec said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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 Mlada Boleslav, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mlada Boleslav and Prostějov have settled on $140.0K. 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.
The offer went to Ústí nad Labem this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Mlada Boleslav offered $150.0K; Táborsko said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The name of Maxim Kalabus has come up in conversations Mlada Boleslav were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Solomon John 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 easiest signature of my career.” Denis Kaulfus and Mlada Boleslav agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 Mlada Boleslav, 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 Mlada Boleslav 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 Mikuláš Bakaľa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mlada Boleslav know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Mlada Boleslav would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mlada Boleslav know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Matouš Krulich 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alex Eichler and Mlada Boleslav agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I watch every Mlada Boleslav game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vlašim runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matěj Hybš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Mlada Boleslav 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.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
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.
Nobody at Mlada Boleslav 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Černý trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mlada Boleslav know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Vojtěch Hora had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Slavia Prague were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 37 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mlada Boleslav have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ondřej Karafiát and Mlada Boleslav agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vojtěch Hora has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mlada Boleslav have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Daniel Langhamer 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.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Victor Boluwatife Ogungbayi. 1‑0 against Slovacko, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Feb 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.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Pech. 1‑0 against Banik Ostrava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Matej Masopust, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tincho 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mlada Boleslav are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Matěj Hybš
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Enyimba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mlada Boleslav is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Mlada Boleslav, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Muhamadou Kanteh did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Muhamadou Kanteh has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 1‑0 win over České Budějovice, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Adam Ševínský had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mlada Boleslav can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mlada Boleslav asked and Prostějov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
In brief
The dugoutNo place for Solomon John on the big day
“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 Mlada Boleslav, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Muhamadou Kanteh, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mlada Boleslav have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adam Ševínský, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikuláš Bakaľa 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Chiquinho is in the works
“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; Mlada Boleslav are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Mlada Boleslav had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Mlada Boleslav asked and Zbrojovka Brno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mlada Boleslav has been clear about where David Pech stands, which is more than many ever get.
He is 23 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.
In brief
Player ratingsDavid Pech was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10 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.
Muhamadou Kanteh 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.
“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 Mlada Boleslav know it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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 David Pech is on it.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Mlada Boleslav will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mlada Boleslav this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
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.
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.
“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 Mlada Boleslav will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Pech signs something — a contract at Mlada Boleslav or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is David Pech’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mlada Boleslav needing him to play as if none of it matters.
9 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.
Position 14 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.
6 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.
Ondřej Karafiát 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.
Sparta Prague left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mlada Boleslav can pretend not to have heard.
Muhamadou Kanteh 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mlada Boleslav can tell you which week it ends in.
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Mlada Boleslav training over how hard people work
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Jakub Surovčík