He is going to NK Krsko, 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at NK Celje heard it as anything else.
Add another name to the list: Neftchi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Valters Lūsis. The answer from NK Celje has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Damjan Vuklišević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Matej Poplatnik 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 Darko Hrka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Celje. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around NK Celje they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Leonardo Koutris and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at NK Celje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Zabukovnik 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 Mario Kvesić 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 Matej Poplatnik signs something — a contract at NK Celje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
5 shut-outs in 18 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Žan-Luk Leban has been having a lot of them.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Celje. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Valters Lūsis are not good
Matej Poplatnik 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at NK Celje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Zabukovnik 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 in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Celje. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. NK Celje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at NK Celje 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 NK Celje 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 Darko Hrka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 NK Celje, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
18 appearances at Debrecen and the goals have stopped going in. NK Celje lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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 Ivica Vidović has written the date down.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at NK Celje hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at NK Celje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Zabukovnik 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.
Papa Daniel 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Celje know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Łukasz Bejger has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutYaya Dukuly asks for a word with the manager
David Crespo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at NK Maribor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Čedomir Bumbić 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.
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.
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.
Matej Poplatnik 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.
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Andrej Kotnik 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
3 goals in 16 games at HNK Gorica — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at NK Celje updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olimpija Ljubljana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at NK Celje is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Blaž Kramer takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Blaž Kramer provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from ND Gorica for David Castro 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.
Leonardo Koutris 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrej Kotnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
NK Maribor and NK Celje have settled on $3.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at NK Maribor is enjoying the guessing.
Ažbe Jug 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Antonio Marin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means NK Maribor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tio Cipot 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.
Add another name to the list: Koper have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tian Varmaz Plava. The answer from NK Maribor has not changed — yet.
Leonardo Koutris 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at NK Celje heard it as anything else.
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.