Marked for Aleksandar Kovačević
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Vladimir Petrović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marko Stojanović 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Dišić, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nobody at Smederevo 1924 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dimitrije Tabaković’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Smederevo 1924 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Smederevo 1924, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Dimitrije Tabaković 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Smederevo 1924 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Petrović 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Novak Markovic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andrija Sergej is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Prince Benjamin Obasi is on it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vladimir Petrović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Smederevo 1924 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Smederevo 1924. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Dejan Meleg and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 22 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Smederevo 1924 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.51 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Smederevo 1924 had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Marko Stojanović
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sava Prodanović arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sava Prodanović has, at Smederevo 1924, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mihajlo Spasojević 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Smederevo 1924, another week without a signature from Sava Prodanović.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Smederevo 1924
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Nikola Bursać is in the works
Smederevo 1924 have made the call to TSC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Mladost Lucani 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
Smederevo 1924 have made the call to Vojvodina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.