Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Prostějov, and it is not being withdrawn.
David Planka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Prostějov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juraj Chvátal 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.
28 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver 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 Prostějov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Prostějov could ask drops and the wages Jiří Kulhánek can ask rise.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Prostějov. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Prostějov is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Jan Stejskal 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Prostějov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Gabriel 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Prostějov know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jan Stejskal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Prostějov the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Prostějov 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 Adam Gabriel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Prostějov has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Prostějov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Prostějov 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 Jiří Kulhánek has written the date down.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jiří Kulhánek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Prostějov the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jan Stejskal 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Şahin Kalınsazlıoğlu has, at Prostějov, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Prostějov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juraj Chvátal 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 Prostějov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Prostějov. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
“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 Prostějov, and it is not being withdrawn.
David Planka 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Juraj Chvátal 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomas Masopust, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The bid was some way short and Prostějov did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and John Mercado takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. John Mercado provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Adam Gabriel 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Juraj Chvátal 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: John Mercado. 2‑1 against Slavia Kroměříž, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Planka 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 Prostějov 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 Adam Gabriel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 49. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A brace, and Elmedin Rama takes the afternoon — 8.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elmedin Rama provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
David Planka 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 Oct 2027
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Elmedin Rama 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Slavia Prague B had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
In brief
The dugoutJan Stejskal is still being punished for one mistake
The offer from Karviná for Lukáš Hrdlička 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michal Kroupa is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The phone has started ringing about Michal Kroupa again, and this time the name on the line is MFK Skalica. Prostějov are listening politely and promising nothing.
David Planka 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Prostějov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juraj Chvátal 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Prostějov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Slavia Prague B will want this one forgotten quickly: 9‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Prostějov were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Prostějov can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Prostějov until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Zbrojovka Brno 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sudeeys van Daalen has just signed for Prostějov, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Prostějov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
David Huf was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Lukáš Hrdlička at his very best
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Planka did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Jan Stejskal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
David Planka 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.
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.
Viktoria Žižkov held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Prostějov answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Jan Stejskal 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 Jan 2027
David Planka 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. Slovacko have kept their man, and Prostějov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Prostějov have made the call to Mlada Boleslav. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
0‑3 against Zbrojovka Brno, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
At 20 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.
Jan Stejskal 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.
Prostějov 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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
Nobody left the Prostějov dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Prostějov, another week without a signature from Jan Stejskal.
David Planka 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Jiří Kulhánek 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Tomas Masopust to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Michal Kroupa and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Slavia Kroměříž next, and one man in the Prostějov dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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 Prostějov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.71, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Lukáš Hrdlička was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Matoušek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Adam Dohnálek is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 88% of everything Prostějov earn
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Prostějov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Prostějov told Lukáš Hrdlička something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Prostějov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Prostějov know it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Prostějov and Slavia Prague B, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Prostějov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Planka 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.