At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 96, against NK Varazdin, 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mirko Sušak has his answer from Lokomotiva Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jakov Gurlica had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Marko Vešović 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jagiellonia have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Pajač was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Istra 1961 for Pavle Smiljanić 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Lokomotiva Zagreb 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 phone has started ringing about Tino Jukić again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Zagreb. Lokomotiva Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Basel is saying, and nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is enjoying the guessing.
Marko Vešović 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Lokomotiva Zagreb offered $620.0K; Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb asked and Dinamo Zagreb 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 Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zadar paid $510.0K and Lokomotiva Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Ivan Katić again, and this time the name on the line is Lucko. Lokomotiva Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiva Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The offer from Cibalia for David Virgili 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.
Marko Vešović 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 shirt still fits. Nikola Soldo is back at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAA Gent have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mate Antunović. 1‑0 against Slaven Belupo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 offer went to Zadar 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $796.2K — a club that wants Mislav Benko enough to be asked twice.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ivan Lagundžić is a Lokomotiva Zagreb player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dimitrije Kamenović and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 4 years.
Marko Vešović 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 Marko Pajač was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
10 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have made the call to Astra. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.