From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahmudu Bajo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Miloš Veljković 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Crvena Zvezda have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jack Neeley 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
3.69 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Sep 2026
Position 3 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Mirko Ivanić, 33, rolls back the years — 8.33
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Crvena Zvezda have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marko Arnautović 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 Sep 2026
Words at Crvena Zvezda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Veljković 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mirko Ivanić. 3‑1 against Mladost Lucani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 9.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.75 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 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 Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jovan Popović is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Crvena Zvezda, 2‑1 the final word against TSC in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Timi Max Elšnik at his very best
Marked 8.93. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Crvena Zvezda.
Match19 Sep 2026
Crvena Zvezda settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. TSC spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Crvena Zvezda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Veljković 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.32, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timi Max Elšnik. 1‑0 against Novi Pazar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Jay Enem
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
A conversation is coming this week. Crvena Zvezda will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Miloš Veljković 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Jay Enem
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Crvena Zvezda have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Jay Enem was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
It needed Jay Enem to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Spartak Subotica, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Crvena Zvezda will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jay Enem finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Crvena Zvezda have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
Miloš Veljković 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to OFK Beograd, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Jay Enem could have had three
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market31 Aug 2026
IMT are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Crvena Zvezda will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Matheus has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Zeleznicar Pancevo, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Matheus
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.
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 Crvena Zvezda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Jovan Popović, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Moussa Sissako 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. Moussa Sissako is living that version at Crvena Zvezda, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market24 Aug 2026
The fee is $670.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. IMT drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Miloš Veljković 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
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Jovan Popović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A chastening introduction for Jovan Popović — 5.37
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.37 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad17 Aug 2026
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Miloš Veljković 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rade Krunić 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rade Krunić 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Vojvodina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Radnik Surdulica for Nikola Stanković 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Crvena Zvezda heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miloš Veljković and Crvena Zvezda agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jack Neeley gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jack Neeley has just signed for Crvena Zvezda, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Miloš Veljković 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Crvena Zvezda, 2‑1 the final word against Cukaricki in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miloš Veljković, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Mirko Ivanić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.57 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
Marko Arnautović wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Crvena Zvezda hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Arnautović and Crvena Zvezda agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Timi Max Elšnik 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 Veljković 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marko Arnautović. 2‑0 against Javor-Matis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Muhammed Cham 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.