Marked for Anthony Scully
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Sep 2027
18 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Trayal Kruševac were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Matija Ninić, 21, steals the show — 7.90
Marked 7.90 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Stijn Keller 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 Sep 2027
A move Kamil Lipiński would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kamil Lipiński is living that version at Dinamo Vranje, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Dinamo Vranje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Stamenković 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
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.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
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.
Match11 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Trayal Kruševac, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Sep 2027
Supporters organise against the Dinamo Vranje board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Dinamo Vranje 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Stijn Keller 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Filip Stamenković 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
136% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Vranje
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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Vranje told Matija Marsenić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Srđan Grabež slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Srđan Grabež is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Dinamo Vranje's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Vranje has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Vranje people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market16 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market16 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Vranje did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match14 Aug 2027
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matija Marsenić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
14 matches without a win for Dinamo Vranje
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Dinamo Vranje are no longer polite ones.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
Anger at Dinamo Vranje spills outside the ground
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market9 Aug 2027
Loznica come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Vranje did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Filip Stamenković 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Matija Marsenić 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
1‑2 to Spartak Subotica, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market9 Aug 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Aleksa Marković has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Dinamo Vranje.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Dinamo Vranje interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Aleksandar Radonjic keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer from Radnik Surdulica for Đorđe Belić 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Matija Malekinušić 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Dinamo Vranje asked and Zeleznicar Pancevo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
This league is too small for Matija Ninić
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dinamo Vranje will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Srđan Grabež is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Srđan Grabež is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
Filip Stamenković 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 May 2027
Edin Ajdinović 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 dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Čakovan, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout24 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Vranje. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market24 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anthony Scully signs something — a contract at Dinamo Vranje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Srđan Grabež 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Ikenna Festus knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Vranje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 Miroljub Kostić has written the date down.
Market26 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anthony Scully signs something — a contract at Dinamo Vranje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
Srđan Grabež hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Vranje can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Vranje may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Ridwan Hassan is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Filip Stamenković 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Dinamo Vranje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ridwan Hassan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Feb 2027
10 matches without a win for Dinamo Vranje
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Dinamo Vranje are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match27 Feb 2027
4 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Srđan Grabež 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Stamenković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Miroljub Kostić
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Borac Čačak left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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 Milos Lazovic to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Filip Stamenković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Dinamo Vranje can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Dinamo Vranje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Dinamo Vranje asked and Zeleznicar Pancevo 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Edin Ajdinović
“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.
Looking ahead11 Jan 2027
Smederevo 1924 next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Radnicki Nis: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I want to play”: Luka Čakovan speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Srđan Grabež
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Stijn Keller in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Vranje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Dinamo Vranje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Miroljub Kostić
“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.
Market21 Dec 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Ikenna Festus
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Dinamo Vranje were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anthony Scully. 1‑0 against Grafičar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
7.82, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Dinamo Vranje had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market21 Dec 2026
Allen Sombi Kelo is 18, and Dinamo Vranje have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market21 Dec 2026
Ikenna Festus is 17, and Dinamo Vranje have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukijan Abadžija was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Vranje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Srđan Grabež, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“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; Dinamo Vranje are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.42, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Miroljub Kostić
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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Dinamo Vranje man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Anthony Scully was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Dinamo Vranje can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Stijn Keller 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anthony Scully. 2‑0 against OFK Vršac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market7 Dec 2026
He is 14, and nobody at Dinamo Vranje signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The form table has caught Srđan Grabež
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lukijan Abadžija is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.” Vladimir Pavlovic, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Srđan Grabež loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Srđan Grabež's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Dinamo Vranje's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Vranje has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nikola Skrobonja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukijan Abadžija 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Stamenković, and the manager let it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The form table has caught Srđan Grabež
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Borac Čačak leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 30 in, 19 out at Dinamo Vranje
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 30 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Vranje have done the hard part with Novi Pazar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Edin Ajdinović 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Aleksandar Kadijević 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
18 new faces, and Dinamo Vranje 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dinamo Vranje will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Josh Ruffels commits to Shrewsbury Town for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sam Proctor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Utrecht 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Portsmouth 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Shrewsbury Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Ruffels 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.