From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Both of them Jiří Boula's — 8.44
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Matěj Chaluš 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Planka and Banik Ostrava agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jiří Boula 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Patrick Kpozo
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Banik Ostrava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banik Ostrava is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: Divine Teah rejects the move
Banik Ostrava had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slavia Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Banik Ostrava until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
The shirt still fits. Pavel Juroška is back at Banik Ostrava, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Václav Jurečka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 3‑2 win over Jablonec, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 0‑4 beating by Slavia Prague was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Banik Ostrava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Fee done, terms next for Divine Teah
Banik Ostrava and Slavia Prague have settled on $820.0K. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Matěj Chaluš and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$75.0K was the most the club would pay and Slovacko were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matěj Chaluš, and the manager let it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Jiří Míček has come up in conversations Banik Ostrava were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Zbrojovka Brno, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Sparta Prague for Martin Jedlička 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No deal for Sampson Dweh at that price
Banik Ostrava offered $2.3M; Viktoria Plzen said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: David Látal goes
Jihlava paid $1.3M and Banik Ostrava took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Václav Jurečka 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jiří Boula 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
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Daniel Holzer takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Holzer provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jiří Míček had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Jakub Pira at 18 — 7.95
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jakub Pira did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
Michal Kohút has left for Sigma Olomouc in a $2.6M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market17 Aug 2026
Naftan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Banik Ostrava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 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 Banik Ostrava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Banik Ostrava offered $350.0K; Slovacko said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Banik Ostrava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jiří Boula 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
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Matúš Kmeť has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banik Ostrava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Banik Ostrava have gone to Teplice with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Banik Ostrava have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matúš Kmeť 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Jedlička and Banik Ostrava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$350.0K on the table at Slovacko. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Banik Ostrava have gone to Sparta Prague with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Václav Jurečka 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Václav Jurečka and Banik Ostrava agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Václav Jurečka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jiří Boula 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
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Václav Jurečka’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Banik Ostrava are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.67. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Bohemians 1905 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Banik Ostrava, and both men came out saying it was fine.