61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ognjen Bondžulić provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$560.0K on the table at Partizan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
8 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
91 minutes played. Branislav Kocić found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Radnicki 1923 went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
$530.0K was the most the club would pay and Partizan were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Branislav Kocić. 2‑1 against Radnicki 1923, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Vladimir Rakić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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 2‑0 win over Radnik Surdulica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Radnik Surdulica were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Radnik Surdulica spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Uroš Mojsilović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mladost Lucani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Željko Samčović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mladost Lucani has been clear about where Ivan Metlushko stands, which is more than many ever get.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mihailo Oreščanin and Mladost Lucani agree another 2 years.
Mihailo Oreščanin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Divac 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mladost Lucani, and 2 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Željko Samčović 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 Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Miroslav Lukic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Božičković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mladost Lucani are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mladost Lucani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Luka Božičković and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Ognjen Bondžulić is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mitar Ergelaš’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mladost Lucani needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Željko Samčović signs something — a contract at Mladost Lucani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ognjen Krsmanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ognjen Krsmanović. 1‑0 against Javor-Matis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
Željko Samčović 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 Nov 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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 Mladost Lucani game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Neftchi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mladost Lucani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
9 combined actions and 7.32. 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.
“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.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Melwin Eker has agreed terms with Zeleznicar Pancevo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Željko Samčović 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 Oct 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Mladost Lucani is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sani Abdullahi and Mladost Lucani agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Something was said to Nikola Čumić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Željko Samčović 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Nikola Tasić is a Mladost Lucani player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikola Tasić has just signed for Mladost Lucani, and for once the answer mattered.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Vorskla for Ivan Metlushko 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Željko Samčović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lech have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tekstilac Odžaci are out and Mladost Lucani go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Tekstilac Odžaci spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Uroš Mojsilović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mladost Lucani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Željko Samčović 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ognjen Bondžulić provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mladost Lucani have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lech is saying, and nobody at Mladost Lucani is enjoying the guessing.
Add another name to the list: Voždovac have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Panagiotis Santis. The answer from Mladost Lucani has not changed — yet.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Divac 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lausanne-Sport have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Spartak Subotica for Panagiotis Santis 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grafičar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ognjen Bondžulić and Mladost Lucani agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mladost Lucani people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Miloš Divac 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Mladost Lucani know now that the thought has arrived.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mladost Lucani will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mladost Lucani have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Partizan 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Željko Samčović 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mladost Lucani will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lech is saying, and nobody at Mladost Lucani 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 Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lech have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mladost Lucani have done the hard part with Lech, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Nikola Obućina again, and this time the name on the line is Trayal Kruševac. Mladost Lucani are listening politely and promising nothing.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ušće waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Miloš Divac 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 Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mladost Lucani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Mladost Lucani have made the call to Lech. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutSaša Knežević knocks on the manager’s door
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mladost Lucani have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OFK Vršac keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jakub Lemanowicz has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The phone has started ringing about Uroš Mojsilović again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Vranje. Mladost Lucani are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mladost Lucani asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Željko Samčović 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.
Mladost Lucani have gone to Mačva Šabac 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daan Van Laere is living that version at Mladost Lucani, and it tends to show in the first month.
23 appearances and 7 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Add another name to the list: OFK Vršac have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jakub Lemanowicz. The answer from Mladost Lucani has not changed — yet.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 May 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bismark Ampofo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Petar Bojić is on it.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Željko Samčović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mladost Lucani, another week without a signature from Bismark Ampofo.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Obućina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Željko Samčović signs something — a contract at Mladost Lucani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 111 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jakub Lemanowicz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mladost Lucani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Mladost Lucani know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Divac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 118 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mladost Lucani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mladost Lucani know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mladost Lucani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The words a physio says slowly. 140 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mladost Lucani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Željko Samčović 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 Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mladost Lucani, another week without a signature from Abdulrahman Muniru.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Mladost Lucani would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mladost Lucani know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
162 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
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.
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 Ognjen Bondžulić is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Željko Samčović signs something — a contract at Mladost Lucani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mladost Lucani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saša Knežević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Hamza Nait-Birrou is on it.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 52 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Mladost Lucani know it.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Divac 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.
Vladimir Rakić 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gabriel 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Uroš Ilić
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mladost Lucani are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miroslav Lukic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vladimir Rakić has just signed for Mladost Lucani, and for once the answer mattered.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mladost Lucani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Mitar Ergelaš 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Saša Knežević had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Željko Samčović 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 Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mladost Lucani asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Mladost Lucani asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Jakub Lemanowicz has come up in conversations Mladost Lucani were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Miroslav Lukic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mladost Lucani have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Miloš Divac 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 Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mladost Lucani asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mladost Lucani will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mladost Lucani have done the hard part with Partizan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mladost Lucani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Željko Samčović 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.
Marked 9.87 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Saša Knežević 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mladost Lucani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
“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.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Miroslav Lukic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Mladost Lucani dressing room was either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mladost Lucani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Mitar Ergelaš 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Miroslav Lukic could afford to be generous.
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 Hamza Nait-Birrou is on it.
Željko Samčović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Veljko Kijevčanin is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Melwin Eker is living that version at Mladost Lucani, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
6 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Željko Samčović 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 Mitar Ergelaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mladost Lucani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Uroš Ilić 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Javor-Matis kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Mladost Lucani will be asked about the last half hour all week.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Aleksandar Stanković: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Saša Knežević 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
At 37, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mario David is living that version at Mladost Lucani, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Tasić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mladost Lucani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Željko Samčović 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 goal that put Spartak Subotica ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Mladost Lucani equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Željko Samčović 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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
At 38, 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mladost Lucani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mladost Lucani, another week without a signature from Abdulrahman Muniru.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikola Tasić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mladost Lucani needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mladost Lucani will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
13 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Tasić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mladost Lucani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nikola Tasić has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Mladost Lucani know it.
Željko Samčović 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
At 23 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdulrahman Muniru is living that version at Mladost Lucani, and it tends to show in the first month.
Mihailo Oreščanin 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Milos Krsticic 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Slobodan Sergej is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nemanja Mitrovic 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sinisa Kostic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Mladost Lucani is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Partizan is saying, and nobody at Mladost Lucani 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 Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Mladost Lucani ran out of time with Cukaricki. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mladost Lucani have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mitar Ergelaš has just signed for Mladost Lucani, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Crvena Zvezda is saying, and nobody at Mladost Lucani is enjoying the guessing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mladost Lucani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Miloš Divac 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Mladost Lucani asked and Borussia Mönchengladbach said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 combined actions and 6.81. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mathias Fischer has, at Budafoki MTE, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mathias Fischer and Budafoki MTE agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Budafoki MTE asked and Debrecen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Budafoki MTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Fehervar for Bence Korponai 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.
Everything agreed with Dynamo Kyiv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Zsombor Molnár 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.
Budafoki MTE asked and Sepsi OSK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Budafoki MTE will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Botond Nándori 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.
Radnik Surdulica 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$67.0K was the most the club would pay and Honved were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Budafoki MTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mitar Ergelaš will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Budafoki MTE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is going to Ujpest, the club has $1.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Budafoki MTE asked and ETO Győr 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 Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Botond Nándori 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
Matúš Holíček 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Denys Talko has just signed for Budafoki MTE, and for once the answer mattered.
Budafoki MTE asked and Debrecen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Budafoki MTE, another week without a signature from Mitar Ergelaš.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Bartusz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Budafoki MTE will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Botond Nándori 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.
In brief
The dugoutMatúš Holíček knocks on the manager's door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Budafoki MTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
Matúš Holíček 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Bartusz 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.
Squad14 May 2029
9 new faces, and Budafoki MTE 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patrik Posztobányi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Budafoki MTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matúš Holíček 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Vahid Gicić 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.
9 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yan Prijemko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Budafoki MTE could ask drops and the wages Mitar Ergelaš can ask rise.
62 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.
Matúš Holíček and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vahid Gicić 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matúš Holíček trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Budafoki MTE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Budafoki MTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matúš Holíček 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 Vahid Gicić 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.
5 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.
Nobody at Budafoki MTE 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Damien Janela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
62 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.
Position 1 on 62 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Budafoki MTE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
“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 Budafoki MTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vahid Gicić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Lisandru Olmeta now has 51 of them across 148 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Budafoki MTE will try not to make too much of it.
Match3 Mar 2029
After 4 games, Budafoki MTE finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Paksi; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.