Marked for Mirko Ivanić
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Jan 2028
Business is business: Roberto López goes
Betis paid $16.3M and Celta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Jan 2028
Celta say no — this time
The offer from Atlético Madrid for Hugo Sotelo 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Unionistas pay $3.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Williot Swedberg commits to Celta for another 5 years.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Celta
Ilaix Moriba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market17 Jan 2028
Real Sociedad pay $620.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Celta asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Yegor Prutsev out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crvena Zvezda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Jul 2027
Volos NPS come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Crvena Zvezda did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Jul 2027
The chase for Marko Veličković ended with $1.2M changing hands and Vojvodina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A move Marko Veličković 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. Marko Veličković is living that version at Crvena Zvezda, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Rodrigão 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
15 new faces, and Crvena Zvezda 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.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
“I did not go to Radnicki 1923 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Crvena Zvezda and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Mihailo Ristić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Jul 2027
First, on 71 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad12 Jul 2027
29 days out for Yegor Prutsev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crvena Zvezda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market12 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Crvena Zvezda did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Crvena Zvezda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Crvena Zvezda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$1.2M on the table at Vojvodina. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Marko Veličković enough to be asked twice.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Tomás Händel 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 Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stefan Gudelj commits to Crvena Zvezda for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Crvena Zvezda have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Crvena Zvezda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The offer went to Vojvodina 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Crvena Zvezda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Vasilije Kostov 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Radonjic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market28 Jun 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luka Djuricic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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.
Loan watch28 Jun 2027
The goals keep arriving from Edmund Addo’s exile
8 goals in 26 games at OFK Beograd — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Crvena Zvezda updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Crvena Zvezda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Crvena Zvezda offered $2.0M; Vojvodina 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Grafičar pay $37.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market21 Jun 2027
Rodrigão wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Loizos Loizou 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
Mihailo Ristić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
The goals keep arriving from Stefan Mladenovski’s exile
7 goals in 27 games at Grafičar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Crvena Zvezda updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market21 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mirko Ivanić may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Crvena Zvezda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market7 Jun 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Crvena Zvezda asked and Vojvodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Crvena Zvezda had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Crvena Zvezda have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Loizos Loizou commits to Crvena Zvezda for another 5 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mirko Ivanić has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Crvena Zvezda.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout10 May 2027
“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 dugout10 May 2027
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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Muhammed Cham asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Loan watch10 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Uroš Sremčević’s exile
7 goals in 29 games at Radnicki 1923 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Crvena Zvezda updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch10 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Vladimir Lučić’s exile
5 goals in 5 games at FAC Wien — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Crvena Zvezda updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
Loan watch10 May 2027
29 appearances away from home and 3 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Guteša’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad10 May 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Crvena Zvezda the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Ivanić, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
29 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad15 Mar 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Crvena Zvezda has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Matheus has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Vladimir Lučić’s exile
5 goals in 5 games at FAC Wien — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Crvena Zvezda updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Vasilije Kostov’s exile
3 goals in 25 games at ASIL Lysi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Crvena Zvezda updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“Nobody here treats me like a loan player, and that is worth more than people think.” 27 appearances and 1 goals, and a summer that will decide it.
Market15 Mar 2027
The Ivan Guteša talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Crvena Zvezda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Radnicki Nis, and it could have been more.
Match28 Dec 2026
First, on 46 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Crvena Zvezda sell a favourite for $9.0M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bamba Dieng was one of the reasons people came, and $9.0M does not replace that by itself.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.90, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match26 Dec 2026
Crvena Zvezda make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Tomás Händel goes up and wins it — 7.95
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.95 for the rest of it.
Squad28 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 Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adem Avdić is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match30 Nov 2026
36 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Mirko Ivanić: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Crvena Zvezda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2026
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Match30 Nov 2026
Half the programme played, position 1, 36 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Crvena Zvezda told Strahinja Eraković something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Milos Tadic on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Nov 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Crvena Zvezda, 1‑0 the final word against IMT in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Vladimir Lučić 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 7.56 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Crvena Zvezda had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Milos Tadic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Mihailo Ristić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 12. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Marko Arnautović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Zeleznicar Pancevo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match7 Nov 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Mirko Ivanić gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Crvena Zvezda 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Milos Tadic to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Bamba Dieng has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Nemanja Radonjić took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Crvena Zvezda tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Nemanja Radonjić takes the afternoon — 9.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nemanja Radonjić provided it, and the 9.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Crvena Zvezda have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mihailo Ristić 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahmudu Bajo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 17 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Milos Tadic kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
No place in the plan for Bamba Dieng
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Crvena Zvezda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer from Dubočica for Adem Avdić 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Crvena Zvezda close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Crvena Zvezda heard it as anything else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mirko Ivanić is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mirko Ivanić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Crvena Zvezda board find $4.0M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $4.0M well is entirely his problem now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bamba Dieng makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Crvena Zvezda have gone to Dynamo Dresden 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
Marko Arnautović wants to know where this is going
“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 Crvena Zvezda hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marko Arnautović commits to Crvena Zvezda for another 1 years.
Squad3 Aug 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 Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months and counting on Mirko Ivanić
Still no offer on the table, and Mirko Ivanić’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Crvena Zvezda are still strangers to each other
16 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Milos Tadic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.