Marked for Patrick Nwadike
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Spartak Trnava have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match1 Feb 2027
34 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Fee done, terms next for Patrik Iľko
Spartak Trnava and MSK Zilina have settled on $3.2M. 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 3 in, 2 out at Spartak Trnava
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad1 Feb 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 Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Spartak Trnava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
MFK Michalovce 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.
Squad1 Feb 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Juanmi Carrión has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Spartak Trnava 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
At 38 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.94, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jakub Sylvestr 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 2‑0 win over MSK Zilina, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Spartak Trnava pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Jan Mak could afford to be generous.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market28 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Spartak Trnava know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Spartak Trnava do not lose
7 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Patrick Nwadike and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.90 on the card, and the Spartak Trnava support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Tomáš Suslov 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.” Jan Mak chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Martin Mikovič
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Roko Jureškin 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 Roko Jureškin is on it.
Market14 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tomáš Suslov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Dec 2026
Position 2 and 27 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
There were 7 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Nwadike and Spartak Trnava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Roman Procházka 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
400 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 2‑1 win over Podbrezova, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michal Ďuriš, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.96 on the card, and the Spartak Trnava support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Tomáš Suslov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Erik Sabo
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Something was said to Tomáš Suslov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Inter Bratislava to sit and watch. I want to come back to Spartak Trnava and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match21 Nov 2026
It needed Tomáš Suslov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against FC Košice, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Jan Mak chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 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.
Match25 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Oct 2026
16 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“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 Spartak Trnava, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Jan Mak faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jan Mak after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timotej Kudlička, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Tatran Prešov had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 2 out at Spartak Trnava
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Libor Holík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Spartak Trnava asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Spartak Trnava now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.