Marked for Patrick Nwadike
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Trnava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Moistsrapishvili, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Trnava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristián Koštrna 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Spartak Trnava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Trnava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Libor Holík 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
Miloš Kratochvíl 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Žiga Frelih 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.71. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Michal Ďuriš dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with MFK Michalovce leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 26 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Libor Holík and Spartak Trnava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Libor Holík 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Miloš Kratochvíl 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.26 — 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.