“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 The request is on a desk at NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Brinje Grosuplje spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rudar Velenje is saying, and nobody at NK Krka is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for NK Krka is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Marcel Kene 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. NK Krka have done the hard part with Rudar Velenje, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Andraž Lipec 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Kene 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Oliver Lukić 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at NK Krka has been clear about where Nik Kapun stands, which is more than many ever get.
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Kene 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 NK Krka game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dravinja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Brkić signs something — a contract at NK Krka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Marcel Kene 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Erik Stojanovic after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Tevž Pokorn 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domen Žur 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.
10 combined actions and 6.67. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Erik Stojanovic to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Tilen Mlakar 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.
“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 NK Krka will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutPatrik Legen asks for a word with the manager
The match ball belongs to Marcel Kene, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Oliver Lukić, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Juankar 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marcel Kene 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Krka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.53, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Juankar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marcel Kene 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.
“I watch every NK Krka game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dravinja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A 1‑1 draw with NK Krsko leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Erik Stojanovic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the NK Krka dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tevž Pokorn 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against NK Krsko in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Krka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Ante Matić is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kenan Hadžibegović has written the date down.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at NK Krka has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Bičanić 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 dugout19 Oct 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Erik Stojanovic to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Everybody at NK Krka saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Kene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and NK Krka know which stage they are at.
Marked 7.33 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, NK Krka had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Erik Stojanovic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the NK Krka dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Andraž Lipec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marcel Kene 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.
13 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Erik Stojanovic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gregor Medle signs something — a contract at NK Krka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NK Krka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
NK Krka had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Osijek, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Tevž Pokorn 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 Leon Bičanić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brinje Grosuplje next, and one man in the NK Krka dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luka Čadež was one of the reasons people came, and $670.0K does not replace that by itself.
The deal with Beltinci is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Tevž Pokorn 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. NK Krka were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Bičanić 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.
Beltinci will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. NK Krka were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Mark Gliha takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mark Gliha provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Dominik Iskrić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 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 offer from Kukësi for Jaša Hribar 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.
Andraž Lipec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tevž Pokorn 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.
He is 21 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Domen Bijol is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Tim Štrasberger 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.
Brinje Grosuplje have made the call to Bravo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Benkič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.