Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Zahovič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at NK Maribor 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Maribor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Tio Cipot has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Andrija Drljo 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Lan Vidmar 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 ND Gorica game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Zavrc runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Andrija Drljo 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 Nov 2026
Yaya Dukuly 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.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaya Dukuly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Taj Rožič Šuligoj and ND Gorica agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Something was said to Yaya Dukuly and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Jure Handanovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ND Gorica has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Lan Vidmar 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Filip Pobi will call it something else in private.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jure Handanovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is 37, he is from here, and the shirt he was raised to wear has gone to somebody bought for it. The academy staff have noticed, and so has the town.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ND Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaya Dukuly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every ND Gorica game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Zavrc runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Vid Brekalo 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. ND Gorica told Marat Žlibanović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lan Vidmar 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Andrija Drljo 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lan Vidmar 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 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Cene Kitek has his answer from ND Gorica; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Prosper Obiora Nwachukwu provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Andrija Drljo 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lan Vidmar 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. Koper have kept their man, and ND Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Prosper Obiora Nwachukwu 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.
8 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 1 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 Zurich is saying, and nobody at ND Gorica is enjoying the guessing.
6 goals in one match, Tim Matavž on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of ND Gorica and Koper.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lan Vidmar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A brace, and Tim Matavž takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tim Matavž provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ND Gorica have done the hard part with NK Celje, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Filip Pobi 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tilen Vendramin 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.
ND Gorica asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tim Matavž. 2‑1 against Rudar Velenje, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 19 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.
5 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.
1‑5 to NK Domzale, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The deal with NK Maribor 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.
Andrija Drljo 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about ND Gorica and NK Domzale in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.48, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Maribor have kept their man, and ND Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Balkovec is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.