Marked for Mlađan Stevanović
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Đorđe Jovanović, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match20 Feb 2027
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and TSC were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Radnik Surdulica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
TSC made Radnik Surdulica work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 7.77 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Radnik Surdulica had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mlađan Stevanović, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
One booking too many, and Luka Hyryläinen sits out. Radnik Surdulica lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Radnik Surdulica will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match6 Jan 2027
1‑3 against TSC, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Radnik Surdulica people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Vukašin Bogdanović takes the afternoon — 8.78
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vukašin Bogdanović provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Jan 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 targets11 Jan 2027
Radnik Surdulica and Cukaricki have settled on $66.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Vukašin Bogdanović 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Radnik Surdulica have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Radnik Surdulica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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 dugout16 Nov 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 dugout16 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Luka Zorić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
No place for Wang Xingqiang in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Radnik Surdulica are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A promise honoured for Axel Urie
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radnik Surdulica told Axel Urie something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Radnicki 1923 next, and one man in the Radnik Surdulica dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Đorđe Jovanović signs something — a contract at Radnik Surdulica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Radnik Surdulica would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Borac Čačak to sit and watch. I want to come back to Radnik Surdulica and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Market12 Oct 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Radnik Surdulica has been clear about where Mlađan Stevanović stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spartak Subotica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Đorđe Jovanović’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Radnik Surdulica will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Ranđelović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Cukaricki, and it could have been more.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Christ Kouadio had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Luka Hyryläinen delivers — 7.64
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luka Hyryläinen scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market14 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Partizan moved on, Stefan Ranđelović reports back to Radnik Surdulica, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 23 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christ Kouadio commits to Radnik Surdulica for another 3 years.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.79, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.