Marked for August Strömberg
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jun 2028
August Strömberg damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Sondre Jørgensen out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IK Start will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Jun 2028
IK Start are in real trouble now
Position 15, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A falling-out at IK Start
Mikael Ugland and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces5 Jun 2028
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.
Match3 Jun 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alexander Gurendal’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to IK Start.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
19 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.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“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.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.95 on the card, and the IK Start support went home talking about one name.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 May 2028
August Strömberg damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Squad29 May 2028
34 days out for Sondre Jørgensen after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. IK Start will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout29 May 2028
Magnar Ødegaard: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” IK Start have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Steve Mvoué goes up and wins it — 7.50
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 7.50 for the rest of it.
Match27 May 2028
The wait goes on for IK Start
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.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 May 2028
6 goals as IK Start and Lyn go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between IK Start and Lyn, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match27 May 2028
A bad afternoon for IK Start against Lyn
2‑4 to Lyn, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 May 2028
A row about effort at IK Start
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steve Mvoué was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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The dugout
Markus Soomets gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
Wages eat 111% of everything IK Start earn
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2028
August Strömberg damages knee ligaments — 102 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IK Start will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 May 2028
Mikael Ugland 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Steve Mvoué 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.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Aki Fackrell ran the middle of the pitch — 6.70
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.70, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Marked 7.59 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, IK Start had the best player on the pitch.
Match20 May 2028
Honours even between IK Start and Moss
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout22 May 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bjorn King after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 May 2028
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IK Start lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match10 May 2028
The small margins put IK Start out
Out, 0‑1 to Brann, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad15 May 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IK Start will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
Match13 May 2028
0‑1 to Sandefjord, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Bjorn King to a room that had heard them before.
Squad15 May 2028
Armin Karić 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 dugout15 May 2028
Jonas Torsvik gets picked when it counts
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 Jonas Torsvik is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for August Strömberg
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IK Start lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 May 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IK Start will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings8 May 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.33, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 May 2028
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.02, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market8 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match6 May 2028
The drought breaks for IK Start
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sogndal were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The IK Start board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eirik Schulze and IK Start agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steve Mvoué 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for August Strömberg
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IK Start lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match29 Apr 2028
9 matches without a win for IK Start
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around IK Start are no longer polite ones.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” IK Start may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 May 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason IK Start will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
A row about effort at IK Start
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steve Mvoué was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Wages swallow 100% of the IK Start income
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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
A mark of 7.69, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match29 Apr 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Aalesund leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for August Strömberg
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. IK Start lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 Apr 2028
No end in sight to IK Start's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at IK Start has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. IK Start will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Mikael Ugland 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
The goals have deserted IK Start
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at IK Start can tell you which week it ends in.
Match22 Apr 2028
A bad afternoon for IK Start against Åsane
0‑2 to Åsane, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Markus Welinder
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A row about effort at IK Start
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armin Karić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
141 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. IK Start lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match15 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for IK Start
7 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at IK Start
Mikael Ugland 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A move Dan Chimeziri would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dan Chimeziri is living that version at IK Start, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A row about effort at IK Start
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steve Mvoué was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Apr 2028
0‑1 to Egersund, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Markus Soomets is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Bjorn King to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Apr 2028
August Strömberg damages knee ligaments — 148 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
6 matches without a win for IK Start
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around IK Start are no longer polite ones.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A falling-out at IK Start
Mikael Ugland and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
6 academy graduates step up at IK Start
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at IK Start training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steve Mvoué 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market10 Apr 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin Normann 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tobias Linnes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at IK Start
Mikael Ugland 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 Dec 2027
A row about effort at IK Start
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felix Kutsche Eriksen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Omar Jebali gets it from the manager
“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.
Market20 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jonas Torsvik’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market20 Dec 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad20 Dec 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at IK Start has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad6 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IK Start this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market6 Dec 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at IK Start
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Lode was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” August Strömberg commits to IK Start for another 2 years.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad6 Dec 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Market6 Dec 2027
Experience through the door at IK Start
August Strömberg arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 2027
“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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Adam Petrák hands in a written request
“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.
Match21 Aug 2027
9 matches without a win, and then this, against Smederevo 1924. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market23 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Mladost Lucani asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match21 Aug 2027
A 2‑1 win over Smederevo 1924, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces16 Aug 2027
The mood at Mladost Lucani has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Dušan Jovančić damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market16 Aug 2027
Cukaricki paid $230.0K and Mladost Lucani took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukijan Abadžija 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mladost Lucani have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Irfan Hadžić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
96 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.
Market31 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 May 2027
David Đokić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch31 May 2027
29 appearances at Novi Pazar and the goals have stopped going in. Mladost Lucani lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad31 May 2027
Mladost Lucani are still strangers to each other
6 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.
Market31 May 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Danijel Ranđelov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout31 May 2027
Ibrahim Adamu knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Market31 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lukijan Abadžija signs something — a contract at Mladost Lucani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad31 May 2027
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
Željko Samčović’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 27 appearances at Novi Pazar. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Match20 Feb 2027
IMT held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Mladost Lucani answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Kaito Verheyden 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
25 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Match20 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aleksandar Dimitrijevic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mladost Lucani dressing room was either.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Mladost Lucani has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Pressure builds in the Mladost Lucani boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
August Strömberg: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 0 in, 2 out at Mladost Lucani
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cercle Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Mladost Lucani asked and Dubočica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jan 2027
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Market18 Jan 2027
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.
Boardroom18 Jan 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nemanja Žunić 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match16 Jan 2027
Napredak left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
John Mary in a row with a teammate
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikola Ćirković
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nemanja Žunić’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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ibrahim Adamu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Filip Žunić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mladost Lucani 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
12 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.