The offer went to Partizan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Borac Čačak asked and Zemun said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Đorđe Glišović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Slobodan Petrovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aleksandar Maksimovic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sergej Vlahovic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
108% of the income goes out in wages at Borac Čačak
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Nikola Petrić 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Noah Steine Jakobsen has, at Borac Čačak, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Đorđe Glišović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Borac Čačak asked and Voždovac said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan enquiry to Zeleznicar Pancevo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Borac Čačak will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Nikola Petrić 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Đorđe Glišović 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 Nikola Motika trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Veljko Mladenović 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 May 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Đorđe Glišović 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borac Čačak will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borac Čačak lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Lhernault was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Borac Čačak will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borac Čačak lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
55 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Nikola Petrić 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Borac Čačak will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Borac Čačak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Borac Čačak lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Đorđe Glišović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Elijah Akanni
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clément Lhernault 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.
Nikola Petrić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clément Lhernault 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borac Čačak are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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.
Nikola Petrić 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Borac Čačak, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
In brief
BoardroomThe Borac Čačak board put their names to it
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bogdan Milošević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borac Čačak are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Borac Čačak, another week without a signature from Bogdan Milošević.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Motika was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
109% of the income goes out in wages at Borac Čačak
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
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 Aleksa Marković is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Petrić signs something — a contract at Borac Čačak or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
55 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Milošević 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.
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 Veljko Mladenović is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Borac Čačak will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nikola Petrić 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Milošević 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borac Čačak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Bogdan Milošević will call it something else in private.
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Uros Milenkovic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Nikola Petrić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Milošević 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.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Borac Čačak will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
50 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borac Čačak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Milošević 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.
“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 Borac Čačak know it.
Borac Čačak asked and Radnicki Nis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Borac Čačak have lost him in all but the paperwork.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Borac Čačak had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Crvena Zvezda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
“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 Borac Čačak know it.
Pavle Mihajlović 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.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vahid Gicić did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Borac Čačak close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Add another name to the list: MFK Zvolen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Meshack Vondolie. The answer from Borac Čačak has not changed — yet.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Darius Lipsiuc has just signed for Borac Čačak, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borac Čačak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zeleznicar Pancevo have kept their man, and Borac Čačak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borac Čačak have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Elijah Akanni’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Borac Čačak.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Milošević 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.
Borac Čačak asked and Vllaznia Shkodër said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Nikola Čolić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Tekstilac Odžaci will replay every second of the added time for a week.
42 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Nikola Čolić takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikola Čolić provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nikola Petrić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Argeș have kept their man, and Borac Čačak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Borac Čačak told Vahid Gicić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Nikola Petrić 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 Clément Lhernault was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Borac Čačak asked and TSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.69, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Borac Čačak had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borac Čačak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ušće next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
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 Uros Milenkovic to a room that had heard them before.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Veljko Mladenović 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Đorđe Glišović 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.
8.25. 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.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Borac Čačak had all but put away. Trayal Kruševac will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
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 Aleksa Marković is on it.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Trayal Kruševac next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Uros Milenkovic, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borac Čačak are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Vahid Gicić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Borac Čačak will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Grafičar will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Borac Čačak were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borac Čačak have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edward Unuigbeje and Borac Čačak agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marko Živković was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borac Čačak are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.33, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Position 1, 31 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and OFK Vršac had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Borac Čačak did not stop to explain themselves.
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Nikola Petrić 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.
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.
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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Nikola Petrić 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Borac Čačak, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
A side in position 11 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Veljko Mladenović 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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It needed Todor Glišović to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Dinamo Vranje, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Uros Milenkovic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Borac Čačak will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 Clément Lhernault was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Borac Čačak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Đorđe Glišović 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.
Vahid Gicić 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Čolić. 3‑1 against Loznica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Todor Glišović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clément Lhernault was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Borac Čačak can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borac Čačak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vahid Gicić, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
19 new faces, and Borac Čačak 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.
Loznica next, and one man in the Borac Čačak dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edward Unuigbeje trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Đorđe Glišović 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.
“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 Borac Čačak know it.
Bogdan Milošević 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 Clément Lhernault was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Veljko Mladenović is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Uros Milenkovic after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Borac Čačak squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Veljko Mladenović. 2‑1 against Tekstilac Odžaci, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
10 combined actions and 6.95. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Uros Milenkovic could afford to be generous.
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 Aleksa Marković is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Đorđe Glišović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Borac Čačak asked and IMT said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.71, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Borac Čačak 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 Uros Milenkovic to a room that had heard them before.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Borac Čačak will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
That is the business done at Borac Čačak 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Borac Čačak have done the hard part with Partizan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Borac Čačak will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Borac Čačak than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Elijah Akanni is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
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.
A 1‑0 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.
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.
7.85, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Borac Čačak had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bogdan Milošević's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Uros Milenkovic could afford to be generous.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Napredak spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Borac Čačak have done the hard part with Voždovac, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borac Čačak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Borac Čačak asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vahid Gicić did not need any: 7.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.83 for the rest of it.
Đorđe Glišović 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.
At 17 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Borac Čačak know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Borac Čačak, another week without a signature from Bogdan Milošević.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Darko Stanojević has just signed for Borac Čačak, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at OFK Beograd is saying, and nobody at Borac Čačak is enjoying the guessing.
Bogdan Milošević 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Borac Čačak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Nikola Petrić again, and this time the name on the line is TSC. Borac Čačak are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dejan Grujic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Novi Pazar have kept their man, and Borac Čačak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Veljko Mladenović 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Zeleznicar Pancevo 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Uros Milenkovic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Borac Čačak will not keep him by pretending otherwise.