It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at HNK Rijeka can tell you which week it ends in.
The shirt still fits. Robert Mudražija is back at HNK Rijeka, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
22 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at HNK Rijeka now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Justas Lasickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mateo Itrak has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means HNK Rijeka have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 HNK Rijeka will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Šimun Butić 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.
Loan watch23 Apr 2029
Niko Vučetić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 22 appearances at Radnik Krizevci. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jovan Manev has his answer from HNK Rijeka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Position 5, 23 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jovan Manev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Marko Tolić 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at HNK Rijeka, and 8 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Cezary Miszta is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HNK Rijeka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jovan Manev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The offer from HamKam for Toni Silić 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jovan Manev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HNK Rijeka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marko Tolić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Lepinjica 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.
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.
“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 HNK Rijeka, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Rijeka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jovan Manev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HNK Rijeka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 HNK Rijeka hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mladen Devetak commits to HNK Rijeka for another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justas Lasickas 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 watch every HNK Rijeka game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajduk Split runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 HNK Rijeka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HNK Rijeka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jovan Manev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HNK Rijeka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
HNK Rijeka had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Varazdin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HNK Rijeka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jovan Manev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HNK Rijeka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether HNK Rijeka can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: NK Varazdin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 110th minute. Lucko will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 23 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Dominik Thaqi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.38
A mark of 8.38 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 HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Thaqi 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 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.
0‑2 away to the standard of Groningen. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout13 Nov 2028
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 Filip Pasalic to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Roko Šimić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Tolić signs something — a contract at HNK Rijeka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HNK Rijeka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Marko Tolić 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 Ivan Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Filip Pasalic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the HNK Rijeka dressing room was either.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jovan Manev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and HNK Rijeka needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jovan Manev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HNK Rijeka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether HNK Rijeka can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Exeter City have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justas Lasickas 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.
Minute 87, against HNK Gorica, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HNK Rijeka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Toni Silić 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 HNK Rijeka can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Cibalia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justas Lasickas 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HNK Rijeka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Rijeka can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cezary Miszta was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $19.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Lepinjica 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HNK Rijeka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 HNK Rijeka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HNK Rijeka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Rijeka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
HNK Rijeka moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Filip Pasalic, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
HNK Rijeka have gone to Dubrava 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 have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Lokomotiva Zagreb 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 phone has started ringing about Cherno Saho again, and this time the name on the line is HNK Vukovar 1991. HNK Rijeka are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Dantas 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.
HNK Rijeka asked and HNK Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
HNK Rijeka have made the call to Schalke 04. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HNK Rijeka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 19 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.
Marko Tolić 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Dantas 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 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 Marko Tolić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niko Janković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Rijeka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HNK Rijeka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marko Tolić 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 easiest signature of my career.” Lukas Đikić and HNK Rijeka agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Tiago Dantas 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.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HNK Rijeka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HNK Rijeka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marko Tolić 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.
29 games, 17 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at HNK Rijeka now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
9 clean sheets from 17 appearances at Radnik Krizevci. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stipo Marković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HNK Rijeka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Rijeka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jovan Manev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around HNK Rijeka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marko Tolić 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 Dejan Petrovič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marko Tolić is on it.
8 goals in 29 games at Altach — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at HNK Rijeka updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dejan Petrovič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Rijeka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marko Tolić 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.
28 appearances at Mladost Zdralovi and the goals keep coming. HNK Rijeka are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Dantas 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Rijeka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marko Tolić 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 Feb 2028
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Chorý 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.
9 clean sheets from 17 appearances at Radnik Krizevci. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. HNK Rijeka 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 HNK Rijeka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marko Tolić 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 Tomáš Chorý was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
HNK Rijeka asked and Athletico Paranaense 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: BSK Bijelo Brdo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Branko Pavić. The answer from HNK Rijeka has not changed — yet.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation HNK Rijeka are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jarun Zagreb waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HNK Rijeka is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Hajduk Split paid $12.6M and HNK Rijeka took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ante Matej Jurić has gone, the accounts have $12.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Roko Valinčić has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Marko Tolić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomáš Chorý was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
HNK Rijeka 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Dantas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Justas Lasickas is on it.
14 appearances at Radnik Krizevci and the goals have stopped going in. HNK Rijeka lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
6 goals in 19 games at Altach — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at HNK Rijeka updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around HNK Rijeka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka 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 Tomáš Chorý was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marko Tolić is on 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 HNK Rijeka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tiago Dantas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and HNK Rijeka needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Lukas Đikić’s exile
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Miha Zajc’s exile
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
$9.1M was the most the club would pay and Coritiba 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 24 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomáš Chorý 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. Jadran Luka Ploce have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.