Dinamo Zagreb U20

8 Feb 2032
Sunday
Process
288 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

2 Feb 2032
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Miha Zajc damages knee ligaments — 108 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Mislav Pasalic says no to Sesvete

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mislav Pasalic had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Niko Galešić asks to leave Dinamo Zagreb

“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.

Boardroom

Dinamo Zagreb close the window on a squad of their own making

2 in and 6 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.

Market

Nikola Čavlina wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Hrvatski Dragovoljac for Martin Colak 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Miha Zajc signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miha Zajc and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 2 years.

In brief

Back issues
287 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

26 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Miha Zajc damages knee ligaments — 115 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Roko Ban has said yes to Segesta

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Miha Zajc says no to Zadar

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Miha Zajc had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Arbër Hoxha puts it in writing

“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Pandurii for Domagoj Kasalo 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Boardroom

Tin Srna has agreed to leave Dinamo Zagreb for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb baulk at the price for Bachirou Yaméogo

Sibenik wanted more than $230.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Alberto Del Moral

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

286 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

19 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Miha Zajc out for 123 days

123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Ivan Barić

Dinamo Zagreb asked and NK Osijek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Zadar come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb baulk at the price for Jakov Dedić

NK Osijek wanted more than $1.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Scott McKenna

“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.

Squad

Home is on Nathan's mind

“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; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

In brief

285 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

12 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Juan José Córdoba was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 37. 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.

Match

Cup progress for Dinamo Zagreb

A 0‑0 win over Rudes, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Transfer targets

An offer of $26.0M for Christos Mouzakitis

Dinamo Zagreb have gone to Hull City 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.

The dugout

Scott McKenna: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Nikola Čavlina decides it from twelve yards

1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.

Market

Terms done: Aidan Harris is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and NK Osijek waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Roko Ban says no to Dugopolje

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Roko Ban had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Transfer targets

NK Osijek tell Dinamo Zagreb: Anton Matković is not for sale

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.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb bid $1.1M for Jakov Dedić

The offer went to NK Osijek 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.

In brief

284 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

5 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is named among the best

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. Dinamo Zagreb will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Market

Roko Domjanić asks to leave Dinamo Zagreb

“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.

Market

Luka Dumančić has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Luka Ivanušec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Lucko join the queue for Mislav Pasalic

Add another name to the list: Lucko have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mislav Pasalic. The answer from Dinamo Zagreb has not changed — yet.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

The dugout

Dinamo Zagreb keep their word to Luka Ivanušec

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.

Market

Arbër Hoxha told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Arbër Hoxha has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Dinamo Zagreb.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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.

In brief

283 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

29 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

Home is on Joaquín Sosa's mind

“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; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

When it matters, Gabriel Vidović plays

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 dugout

Ante Crnac knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Moris Valinčić question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moris Valinčić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

282 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

22 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Dinamo Zagreb up to position 2

33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market

Mislav Pasalic has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Nikola Čavlina 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

When it matters, Moris Valinčić plays

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 dugout

Ante Crnac knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Arbër Hoxha is still paying for one afternoon at Dinamo Zagreb

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.

Market

No place for Alfonso Barco in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alfonso Barco has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

281 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

15 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Moris Valinčić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Market

The Luka Stojković question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luka Stojković’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Squad

Jayden Fevrier remains an outsider

A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Zagreb would admit. It shows on Saturdays.

In brief

280 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

8 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Luka Dumančić is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Fran Topić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

Dinamo Zagreb count the cost of losing Luka Bilic

38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Mislav Pasalic is the division's best young player this month

At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Dinamo Zagreb will try very hard not to make too much of it.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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 dugout

No hiding place for Jack Dallimore

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jack Dallimore, and the manager let it.

Market

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf linked with a move away

The name of Matteo Pérez Vinlöf keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

279 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

1 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Ante Crnac: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Dinamo Zagreb keep their word to Gabriel Vidović

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.

The dugout

Gabriel Vidović has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Florian Lazaro

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florian Lazaro, and the manager let it.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde remains an outsider

A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Zagreb would admit. It shows on Saturdays.

Market

The Moris Valinčić question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moris Valinčić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Market

Alfonso Barco placed on the list

Dinamo Zagreb have made Alfonso Barco available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

In brief

278 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

24 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Full time on the season at Dinamo Zagreb

Position 2 on 33 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Market

Mislav Pasalic is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Gabriel Vidović was unplayable

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.

Market

Joaquín Sosa wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Nathan wants to go home

“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 Dinamo Zagreb know it.

Squad

Dinamo Zagreb are still strangers to each other

13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

In brief

277 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

17 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Antonio Jakir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Bruno Kovacevic breaks a bone — 20 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Moris Valinčić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.27 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

After 6 games, Dinamo Zagreb finally taste it again

The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against NK Osijek; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.

Match

NK Osijek take the points off Dinamo Zagreb

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Looking ahead

Derby week at Dinamo Zagreb

Hajduk Split next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.

In brief

276 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

10 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Bruno Kovacevic breaks a bone — 29 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Nobody wants to play Dinamo Zagreb right now

6 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.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mislav Pasalic at 20 — 8.25

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mislav Pasalic did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Luka Ivanušec beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Luka Dumančić is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb keep winning on the road

4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is carrying Dinamo Zagreb

13 goals and a season average of 7.24. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

In brief

275 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

3 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Dinamo Zagreb march on in the cup

Imotski are out and Dinamo Zagreb go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Match

Manfred Ugalde leads the rout of Zadar

3‑0, and Manfred Ugalde took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dinamo Zagreb tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Martin Colak could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.28

Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.28, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.

Player ratings

Jayden Fevrier runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

A brace, and Manfred Ugalde takes the afternoon — 9.25

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manfred Ugalde provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

A fracture rules Bruno Kovacevic out for 36 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Domagoj Kasalo, 19, steals the show — 8.17

Marked 8.17 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Match

Nobody wants to play Dinamo Zagreb right now

5 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.

The dugout

Domagoj Kasalo says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

In brief

274 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

27 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Dinamo Zagreb up to position 2

26 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb strike at the death to beat NK Varazdin

There were 85 minutes on the clock and NK Varazdin had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Dinamo Zagreb did not stop to explain themselves.

Squad

Bruno Kovacevic breaks a bone — 44 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Only the photograph left for Mislav Pasalic

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mislav Pasalic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Zagreb have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb keep winning on the road

3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Match

Fran Topić the difference as Dinamo Zagreb beat NK Varazdin

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fran Topić. 1‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

In brief

273 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

20 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

52 days out for Bruno Kovacevic after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Fran Topić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make home a hard place to visit

9 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.

The terraces

Dinamo Zagreb supporters have found a favourite in Mislav Pasalic

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mislav Pasalic 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb find a way past Slaven Belupo

Slaven Belupo made Dinamo Zagreb work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Gabriel Vidović beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Manfred Ugalde

A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

In brief

272 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

13 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Dinamo Zagreb run riot against Lokomotiva Zagreb

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

59 days out for Bruno Kovacevic after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Juan José Córdoba

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Scott McKenna

“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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Luka Ivanušec

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.44, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Kirill Kravtsov was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.23. 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.

Squad

15 new faces, and Dinamo Zagreb 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.

In brief

271 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

6 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Farès Bousnina breaks a bone — 26 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Luka Dumančić is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Luka Stojković

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Stojković, and the manager let it.

Match

Nobody wins at Dinamo Zagreb

8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Manfred Ugalde at his very best

Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Zagreb.

Squad

Mislav Pasalic is the division's best young player this month

At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Dinamo Zagreb will try very hard not to make too much of it.

In brief

270 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

29 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Luka Stojković says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

34 days out for Farès Bousnina after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 16 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Market

Mislav Pasalic is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

A move Sergey Muradyan 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. Sergey Muradyan is living that version at Dinamo Zagreb, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb find a way past HNK Gorica

HNK Gorica made Dinamo Zagreb work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Luka Ivanušec at his very best

Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Zagreb.

In brief

269 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

22 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

42 days out for Farès Bousnina after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

Mislav Pasalic, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01

A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

The terraces

One of their own: Mislav Pasalic

He is 20 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb at the halfway mark

Half the programme played, position 5, 13 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.

Squad

Home is on Nathan's mind

“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; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb caught on 88 minutes

The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hajduk Split scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.

Player ratings

Gabriel Vidović beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

268 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

15 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Farès Bousnina out for 50 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Moris Valinčić for 15 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dinamo Zagreb will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Gomel for Mislav Pasalic 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.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Raphaël Le Guen gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Raphaël Le Guen has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Alberto Del Moral

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Dinamo Zagreb against NK Osijek

0‑1 to NK Osijek, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Looking ahead

Derby week at Dinamo Zagreb

Hajduk Split next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.

In brief

267 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

8 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

58 days out for Farès Bousnina after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb turn down Slavia Mozyr for Domagoj Kasalo

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Mikkel Desler gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mikkel Desler has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

As if he never left: Joaquín Sosa returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Joaquín Sosa is a Dinamo Zagreb player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Luka Ivanušec

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Ivanušec, and the manager let it.

Market

Gomel watching Mislav Pasalic

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Zagreb have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

In brief

266 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

1 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Player ratings

Manfred Ugalde scores twice — 9.12

Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Nicolas Bajlicz has said yes to Zadar

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 11 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Market

Josip Mišić says no to Dugopolje

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Josip Mišić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Farès Bousnina puts it in writing

“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 26 in, 15 out at Dinamo Zagreb

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 26 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Zak Sturge arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zak Sturge has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

In brief

265 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

25 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Manfred Ugalde leads the rout of NK Varazdin

4‑1, and Manfred Ugalde took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dinamo Zagreb tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Harry Gray

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leeds United have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

3 goals for Manfred Ugalde

The match ball belongs to Manfred Ugalde, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Market

Nikola Bjelica is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Boardroom

Dinamo Zagreb to lose Luka Dumančić for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luka Dumančić 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Sergi Domínguez 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Luka Stojković

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Manfred Ugalde

Marked 9.70 — 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

In brief

264 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

18 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Zadar come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Mislav Pasalic is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Luka Ivanušec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf has improved at 25, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Squad

Kirill Kravtsov signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kirill Kravtsov commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Alberto Del Moral

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Scott McKenna

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Scott McKenna, and the manager let it.

Match

Slaven Belupo take the points off Dinamo Zagreb

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

  • Boardroom Nobody left the Dinamo Zagreb dressing room in a hurry
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings Nobody could get near Gabriel Vidović
263 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

11 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Dinamo Zagreb make Ante Crnac the dearest name in their history

$26.0M. Fees like that buy a footballer and rent a debate: every touch will be measured against the number for a season at least.

Player ratings

Manfred Ugalde scores twice — 9.13

Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Charlie Webster

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Burton Albion have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Ante Crnac gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ante Crnac has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mislav Pasalic at 20 — 7.71

The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mislav Pasalic did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Moris Valinčić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Dejan Kovacevic is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Sesvete for Stipe Kovacevic 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.

In brief

262 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

4 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb agree $26.0M for Ante Crnac

The clubs have shaken hands with Norwich City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Player ratings

A brace, and Fran Topić takes the afternoon — 8.56

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fran Topić provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Roko Ban has said yes to Irtysh

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Boardroom

Dinamo Zagreb for sale?

Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people being careful with their words. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.

Market

Not going: Domagoj Kasalo stays at Dinamo Zagreb

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” IFK Mariehamn had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Market

Kauno Zalgiris come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

The step up is real for Niko Željković

At 23 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

In brief

261 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

28 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Norwich City tell Dinamo Zagreb: Ante Crnac is not for sale

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.

Market

Nicolas Bajlicz says no to Zadar

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nicolas Bajlicz had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Gabriel Vidović

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Vancouver Whitecaps for Tanej Handanovič 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.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matteo Pérez Vinlöf commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 5 years.

Market

Only the photograph left for Stipe Kovacevic

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stipe Kovacevic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Nathan gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nathan has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.

In brief

260 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

21 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Stipe Kovacevic agrees terms with Sesvete

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Nicolas Bajlicz hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

The step up is real for Milan Kovac

At 16 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Deen Okanović is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Filip Srna stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Filip Srna and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Stjepan Radeljić comes home

The shirt still fits. Stjepan Radeljić is back at Dinamo Zagreb, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Squad

Late improvement for Matteo Pérez Vinlöf

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Dinamo Zagreb

12 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

In brief

259 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

14 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Antonio Perisic out for 15 days

15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Benjamin Arthur

Dinamo Zagreb asked and Brentford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Terms done: Mislav Pasalic is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cibalia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Dejan Kovacevic

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Kovacevic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Marko Grbic 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.

Market

Fran Topić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

David Harrington arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. David Harrington has, at Dinamo Zagreb, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Market

Sesvete join the queue for Martin Colak

Add another name to the list: Sesvete have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martin Colak. The answer from Dinamo Zagreb has not changed — yet.

In brief

258 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

7 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Antonio Perisic damages knee ligaments — 23 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Josip Mišić turns Segesta down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Toni Silić

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

Roko Ban: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

The step up is real for Filip Srna

At 18 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.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Skonto for Roko Ban 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.

Squad

Sergi Domínguez in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Ivan Nevistić is a Dinamo Zagreb player again

He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.

Squad

Ivan Nevistić gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Nevistić has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.

In brief

257 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

30 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Antonio Perisic damages knee ligaments — 31 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

42 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Martin Colak says no to Spartaks

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Martin Colak had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Transfer targets

NK Osijek tell Dinamo Zagreb: Anton Matković is not for sale

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.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Segesta for Josip Mišić 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.

Market

Nikola Bjelica is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

256 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

23 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Not going: Robert Mudražija stays at Dinamo Zagreb

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Segesta had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Emre Ünüvar

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb agree $490.0K for Noa Godec

The clubs have shaken hands with Lokomotiva Zagreb; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Miha Zajc hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from CSKA 1948 for Domagoj Kasalo 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.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Tomas Baković signs for Zadar while still at Dinamo Zagreb

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tomas Baković has agreed terms with Zadar for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Market

Only the photograph left for Deen Okanović

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Deen Okanović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

No deal for Jakov Dedić at that price

Dinamo Zagreb offered $500.0K; NK Osijek 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.

In brief

255 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

16 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Roko Ban has said yes to Sibenik

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Dejan Kovacevic is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Mislav Pasalic says no to Dugopolje

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mislav Pasalic had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Dinamo Zagreb walk away from Toni Silić

$3.7M was the most the club would pay and Hajduk Split 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.

Market

Tanej Handanovič hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Tin Sucic signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tin Sucic and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years.

Transfer targets

HNK Rijeka tell Dinamo Zagreb: Ali Reghba is not for sale

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.

In brief

254 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

9 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Mika Pieterse

Dinamo Zagreb and HNK Rijeka have settled on $1.4M. 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.

Market

Not going: Roko Ban stays at Dinamo Zagreb

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kauno Zalgiris had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Transfer targets

An offer of $3.7M for Toni Silić

Dinamo Zagreb have gone to Hajduk Split 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.

Market

Kristián Bari asks to leave Dinamo Zagreb

“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.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb make their move for Jakov Dedić

$500.0K on the table at NK Osijek. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Squad

A move Farès Bousnina 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. Farès Bousnina is living that version at Dinamo Zagreb, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

253 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

2 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Nobody above Dinamo Zagreb

First, on 42 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Squad

Josip Mišić breaks a bone — 21 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Eynel hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Nikola Bjelica has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Skonto come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Sergi Domínguez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergi Domínguez and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 5 years.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

In brief

252 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

26 May 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Boardroom

Dinamo Zagreb lift the trophy

The season a town measures the next twenty against. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb out of the cup

Hajduk Split ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is carrying Dinamo Zagreb

22 goals and a season average of 7.56. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

A fracture rules Josip Mišić out for 28 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

The division’s best young player: Mislav Pasalic

A whole season of being the finest 20-year-old anybody in this league could put on a pitch. Dinamo Zagreb have him, and everybody else now knows it.

Squad

The season belongs to Manfred Ugalde

An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Zagreb have had the benefit of it.

Market

Deen Okanović has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Manfred Ugalde

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

One of those days for Gabriel Vidović

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

251 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

19 May 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Josip Mišić out for 37 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Dejan Kovacevic is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Sergi Domínguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Squad

“I want to play”: Dejan Kovacevic speaks

“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.

Market

The Moris Valinčić talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Kirill Kravtsov knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Antonio Maurić has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Antonio Maurić has written the date down.

In brief

250 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

12 May 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Josip Mišić breaks a bone — 46 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Filip Srna: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Roko Ban has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Fran Topić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

Loan watch

Jona Benkotić counts the days

“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Segesta runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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.

Market

Sergi Domínguez linked with a move away

The name of Sergi Domínguez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

249 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

5 May 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Nobody above Dinamo Zagreb

First, on 42 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Squad

Josip Mišić breaks a bone — 54 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Nikola Bjelica has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Moris Valinčić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Market

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf linked with a move away

The name of Matteo Pérez Vinlöf keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

Squad

Josip Mišić keeps his options open

“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 36, with 367 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.

In brief

248 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

28 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Josip Mišić out for 61 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Deen Okanović has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Scott McKenna 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 Scott McKenna is on it.

Market

The Scott McKenna story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Scott McKenna signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

247 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

21 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

69 days out for Josip Mišić after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Dejan Kovacevic

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Kovacevic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Nikola Čavlina wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Marko Grbic stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Grbic and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Luka Ivanušec plays

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.

Market

The Moris Valinčić talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Fran Topić knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fran Topić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

246 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

14 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Josip Mišić out for 77 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Robert Boric: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Roko Ban is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Loan watch

Jona Benkotić wants to come home

“I did not go to Segesta to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.

The dugout

Manfred Ugalde has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Alfonso Barco

“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 dugout

Fran Topić knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

245 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

7 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

42 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

The dugout

Marko Grbic says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Nikola Bjelica is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Fran Topić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Scott McKenna 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.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Squad

Marko Grbic moves up the pecking order

Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Dinamo Zagreb than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.

Market

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf linked with a move away

The name of Matteo Pérez Vinlöf keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

244 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

31 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Moris Valinčić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Sergi Domínguez 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.

Market

Deen Okanović is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Scott McKenna 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 Scott McKenna is on it.

Market

The Scott McKenna story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Scott McKenna signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

243 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

24 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Dejan Kovacevic

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Kovacevic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

4 Dinamo Zagreb players away with their countries

The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.

The dugout

When it matters, Luka Ivanušec plays

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.

Market

The Moris Valinčić talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Squad

Nikola Čavlina goes off with his country

A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Dinamo Zagreb would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.

The dugout

Moreno Živković knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Boardroom

Dinamo Zagreb keep producing them

54 graduates from an academy now rated 15 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.

In brief

242 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

17 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Dinamo Zagreb march on in the cup

NK Osijek are out and Dinamo Zagreb go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.56 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Only the photograph left for Roko Ban

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roko Ban will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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 ratings

Luka Ivanušec was unplayable

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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Gabriel Vidović at his very best

Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Zagreb.

Player ratings

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.04. 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.

Loan watch

Jona Benkotić counts the days

“I watch every Dinamo Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Segesta runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

In brief

241 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

10 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

The view from the top for Dinamo Zagreb

42 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.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Mateo Livaja has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

The dugout

Kirill Kravtsov knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Sergi Domínguez talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Squad

Nikola Bjelica has had enough of the bench

“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 Dinamo Zagreb will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.

In brief

240 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

3 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 18 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Josip Mišić says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Moris Valinčić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Deen Okanović is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Boris Erceg signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Boris Erceg commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Scott McKenna plays

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 dugout

Luka Ivanušec knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

239 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

24 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Antonio Maurić out for 26 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Dejan Kovacevic

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Kovacevic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

When it matters, Luka Ivanušec plays

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 dugout

Luka Ivanušec knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Squad

The formation has left Roko Domjanić behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dinamo Zagreb will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

Market

The Scott McKenna question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Scott McKenna’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

The manager makes Antonio Maurić a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Zagreb. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

238 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

17 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 33 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Roko Ban has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Fran Topić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

A move Roko Domjanić 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. Roko Domjanić is living that version at Dinamo Zagreb, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Loan watch

Jona Benkotić has seen enough of Segesta

“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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.

Market

The Moris Valinčić question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moris Valinčić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

237 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

10 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Robert Mudražija damages knee ligaments — 18 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

42 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Squad

40 days out for Antonio Maurić after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Dejan Kovacevic agrees terms with Imotski

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Nikola Čavlina 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Mateo Livaja is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Sergi Domínguez 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

In brief

236 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

3 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Robert Mudražija

25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

A fracture rules Antonio Maurić out for 47 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Terms done: Roko Ban is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kauno Zalgiris waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone

That is the business done at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Market

Luka Dumančić hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Imotski for Mislav Pasalic 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.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Deen Okanović is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

In brief

235 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

27 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Robert Mudražija out for 32 days

32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 54 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Mateo Livaja agrees terms with HNK Vukovar 1991

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Josip Mišić hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

Market

Eyes on Martin Colak again

The phone has started ringing about Martin Colak again, and this time the name on the line is Hrvatski Dragovoljac. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.

The dugout

No hiding place for Fran Topić

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fran Topić, and the manager let it.

In brief

234 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

20 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 63 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Terms done: Anthony Cletus is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and NK Varazdin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Domagoj Kasalo says no to Zalgiris

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Domagoj Kasalo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Eyes on Milan Kovac again

The phone has started ringing about Milan Kovac again, and this time the name on the line is Imotski. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.

Squad

Kristijan Colak signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kristijan Colak commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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 dugout

Kristijan Colak asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

233 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

13 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Dinamo Zagreb through in the cup

A 2‑1 win over Zadar, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 70 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

42 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. Zadar will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is carrying Dinamo Zagreb

22 goals and a season average of 7.56. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Roko Ban has said yes to Lucko

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Mislav Pasalic says no to Dugopolje

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mislav Pasalic had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Player ratings

Domagoj Kasalo, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79

A mark of 7.79 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.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

In brief

232 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

6 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 79 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Not going: Roko Ban stays at Dinamo Zagreb

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is named among the best

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. Dinamo Zagreb will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

The dugout

Juan José Córdoba says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Oisin Gallagher puts it in writing

“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Sibenik come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Luka Ivanušec in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Deen Okanović is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Scott McKenna 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.

In brief

231 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

30 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 89 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Nikola Bjelica has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Fran Topić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

Roko Ban stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Roko Ban and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Scott McKenna 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 Scott McKenna is on it.

Market

The Scott McKenna question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Scott McKenna’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

230 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

23 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 96 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Kristijan Colak has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

Boris Erceg signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Boris Erceg commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec 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 Luka Ivanušec is on it.

The dugout

Dinamo Zagreb keep their word to Roko Ban

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.

Market

The Moris Valinčić question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moris Valinčić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Antonio Jakir knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

229 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

16 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Antonio Maurić breaks a bone — 103 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Nobody above Dinamo Zagreb

First, on 42 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Market

Roko Ban has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Dario Simunovic out for 23 days

The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Dario Simunovic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

The dugout

Manfred Ugalde 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 Manfred Ugalde is on it.

The dugout

Marko Grbic knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Grbic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

No hiding place for Moreno Živković

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moreno Živković, and the manager let it.

In brief

228 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

9 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Antonio Maurić out for 110 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Moreno Živković: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Only the photograph left for Deen Okanović

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Deen Okanović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

Josip Mišić pulls a muscle — 16 days out

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.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Market

The Matteo Pérez Vinlöf story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matteo Pérez Vinlöf signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

227 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

2 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

118 days out for Antonio Maurić after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Tin Sucic says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Nikola Bjelica is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Dinamo Zagreb

Something was said to Luka Ivanušec and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

Squad

Sergi Domínguez makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

The dugout

Scott McKenna 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 Scott McKenna is on it.

In brief

226 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Antonio Maurić out for 125 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Kristijan Colak is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Home is on Anthony Cletus's mind

“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; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

Luka Ivanušec 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 Luka Ivanušec is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Claudiu Chiriches

“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.

Market

No place for Tanej Handanovič in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tanej Handanovič has his answer from Dinamo Zagreb; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

Market

The Moris Valinčić question follows Dinamo Zagreb around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Moris Valinčić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

225 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

18 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Antonio Maurić out for 133 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Nobody above Dinamo Zagreb

First, on 42 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Match

The season ends: position 1 for Dinamo Zagreb

The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 42 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.

The dugout

Claudiu Chiriches says Dinamo Zagreb went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Only the photograph left for Roko Ban

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roko Ban will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Luka Stojković was unplayable

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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Squad

International break empties Dinamo Zagreb

5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.

In brief

224 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

11 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.58 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Player ratings

Gabriel Vidović beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Deen Okanović has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Fran Topić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

NK Osijek end the Dinamo Zagreb run at 6

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Match

NK Osijek take the points off Dinamo Zagreb

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nikola Čavlina

“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.

In brief

223 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

4 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Cup progress for Dinamo Zagreb

A 2‑0 win over Sesvete, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.57 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make it 6 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Zagreb have 6 straight wins of it.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Domagoj Kasalo at 18 — 8.21

The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Domagoj Kasalo did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Player ratings

Robert Mudražija, 33, rolls back the years — 8.00

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Match

Nobody wins at Dinamo Zagreb

12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Market

Only the photograph left for Nikola Bjelica

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Bjelica will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Nikola Čavlina 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

In brief

222 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

28 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.55 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

The dugout

Marko Zebić keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Zagreb have 4 straight wins of it.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make home a hard place to visit

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Kristijan Colak

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kristijan Colak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Mislav Pasalic

At 19 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb get the job done against NK Varazdin

A 2‑0 win over NK Varazdin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

221 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

35 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Gabriel Vidović

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Manfred Ugalde

19 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

The dugout

Miha Zajc keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Roko Ban is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Zagreb have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Dejan Kovacevic stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Dejan Kovacevic and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

220 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

14 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

11 unbeaten for Dinamo Zagreb

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Zagreb did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is carrying Dinamo Zagreb

18 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Player ratings

Juan José Córdoba beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Domagoj Kasalo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

Nobody wins at Dinamo Zagreb

10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb see off Lokomotiva Zagreb

Three points for Dinamo Zagreb, 3‑2 the final word against Lokomotiva Zagreb in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Manfred Ugalde at his very best

Marked 8.69. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Zagreb.

In brief

219 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

10 unbeaten for Dinamo Zagreb

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Zagreb did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is carrying Dinamo Zagreb

17 goals and a season average of 7.43. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Nikola Bjelica is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Nikola Čavlina 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Scott McKenna signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Scott McKenna and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 3 years.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb see off Rudes

Three points for Dinamo Zagreb, 2‑0 the final word against Rudes in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Manfred Ugalde was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.42. 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.

In brief

218 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Kristijan Colak has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Nikola Čavlina stands alone

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.

Match

Whatever happens, Dinamo Zagreb do not lose

9 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Scott McKenna 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.

Match

The run at home goes on for Dinamo Zagreb

9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

The dugout

No hiding place for Fran Topić

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fran Topić, and the manager let it.

Squad

Anthony Cletus wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

Scott McKenna has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

In brief

217 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody above Dinamo Zagreb

First, on 25 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Gabriel Vidović

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.41 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Dinamo Zagreb

The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Market

Roko Ban has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Fran Topić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Mislav Pasalic

At 19 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.

In brief

216 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

16 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Derby delight as Dinamo Zagreb down Hajduk Split

Bragging rights belong to Dinamo Zagreb for another year after a 1‑0 win over Hajduk Split in front of a full house.

Market

Conor McGrandles hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Manfred Ugalde settles the derby

Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Dinamo Zagreb and a story that will outlast his contract.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.36 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Match

7 unbeaten for Dinamo Zagreb

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Zagreb did not have in the autumn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Deen Okanović

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Deen Okanović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb promote Tin Simunovic from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tin Simunovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

In brief

215 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Roko Ban says no to Neman

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Roko Ban had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

The dugout

Antonio Jakir keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Only the photograph left for Domagoj Kasalo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Domagoj Kasalo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Manfred Ugalde

14 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Antonio Jakir

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Dinamo Zagreb

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.

Match

The run is over for Dinamo Zagreb

5 matches without defeat, and then NK Osijek. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

In brief

214 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

2 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Kristijan Colak is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Tanej Handanovič has said yes to Sochi

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Match

Nobody wants to play Dinamo Zagreb right now

5 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.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 21 signed and 15 gone

That is the business done at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Cibalia for Mislav Pasalic 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.

Market

Moris Valinčić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Antonio Jakir beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Dinamo Zagreb lose Mate Petkov

21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

In brief

213 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

A brace, and Manfred Ugalde takes the afternoon — 9.49

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manfred Ugalde provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Ivan Nevistić agrees terms with Slaven Belupo

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

15 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Kauno Zalgiris come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Karlo Išasegi is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb find a way past NK Varazdin

NK Varazdin made Dinamo Zagreb work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

212 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

19 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

No mercy from Dinamo Zagreb

Slaven Belupo will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Zagreb were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Both of them Manfred Ugalde's — 9.34

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Terms done: Aidan Harris is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and TSC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Zagreb have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Filip Srna signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Filip Srna and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years.

Market

Fran Topić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Louie Watson

Dinamo Zagreb asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

211 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

12 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A day Manfred Ugalde will not forget

3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Market

Roko Ban has said yes to Rudes

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Ivan Nevistić asks to leave Dinamo Zagreb

“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.

Squad

Dejan Kovacevic is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 16 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.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Rudes for Mislav Pasalic 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.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Nikola Bjelica is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Player ratings

Manfred Ugalde was on a different afternoon to everybody else

9.93. 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.

Squad

Fran Topić signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fran Topić commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

In brief

210 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

6 goals for Manfred Ugalde

The match ball belongs to Manfred Ugalde, whose 6 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Market

Filip Srna has said yes to Imotski

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Match

Manfred Ugalde leads the rout of Rudes

6‑2, and Manfred Ugalde took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dinamo Zagreb tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Mislav Pasalic at 19 — 8.53

The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mislav Pasalic did not need any: 8.53, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

A career in one shirt: Ivan Nevistić

10 seasons and 201 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.

Squad

The step up is real for Filip Srna

At 18 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.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb turn down HNK Rijeka for Ivan Filipović

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Manfred Ugalde and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years.

Market

Nikola Čavlina 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

In brief

209 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Nikola Bjelica agrees terms with Cibalia

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Empoli tell Dinamo Zagreb: Bogdan Popov is not for sale

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.

Market

Robert Mudražija hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Lucko come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb bid $490.0K for David Kalem

The offer went to NK Osijek 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.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb baulk at the price for Anton Matković

NK Osijek wanted more than $750.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Nikola Bjelica stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikola Bjelica and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

In brief

208 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

22 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Ivan Nevistić agrees terms with Slaven Belupo

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb may not be able to give Nikola Čavlina what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nikola Čavlina wants continental football; whether Dinamo Zagreb can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Aaron Morley rejects the move

Dinamo Zagreb had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Wycombe Wanderers, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Antonio Jakir

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb baulk at the price for David Kalem

NK Osijek wanted more than $850.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Karlo Išasegi is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Karlo Špeljak

Dinamo Zagreb asked and Sibenik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Boardroom

6 academy graduates step up at Dinamo Zagreb

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

In brief

207 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

15 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Genoa tell Dinamo Zagreb: Henrik Meister is not for sale

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.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb baulk at the price for Tiziano Perrotta

Mirandés wanted more than $2.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Real improvement from Nikola Bjelica at Dinamo Zagreb

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikola Bjelica is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Market

Tin Srna has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Moris Valinčić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb make their move for David Kalem

$800.0K on the table at NK Osijek. 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 targets

Mark McGuinness will not be coming to Dinamo Zagreb

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Gillingham is saying, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Karlo Išasegi has agreed to leave Dinamo Zagreb for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

In brief

206 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

8 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Roko Ban has said yes to Sesvete

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed over Rocco Vata

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Istra 1961 have kept their man, and Dinamo Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Ivano Safundžić turns Cibalia down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb bid $2.7M for Tiziano Perrotta

The offer went to Mirandés 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.

Market

Ivan Nevistić is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Scott McKenna 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.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Marko Rog is in the works

Dinamo Zagreb have made the call to Lokomotiva Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Transfer targets

Dinamo Zagreb ask about Mark McGuinness

A loan enquiry to Gillingham: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

205 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

The view from the top for Dinamo Zagreb

36 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.

Market

Terms done: Aidan Harris is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Istra 1961 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Anthony Cletus hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb turn down Imotski for Mislav Pasalic

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Moris Valinčić plays

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 dugout

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In brief

204 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

24 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Terms done: Ivan Nevistić is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Istra 1961 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Not going: Roko Ban stays at Dinamo Zagreb

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Market

Marin Petkov is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

Market

Fran Topić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

The dugout

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

The dugout

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The dugout

No hiding place for Alfonso Barco

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfonso Barco, and the manager let it.

In brief

203 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

18 days out for Arbër Hoxha after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Petar Krišto has said yes to Sibenik

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Zagreb have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Mislav Pasalic turns Imotski down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Aidan Harris hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb say no — this time

The offer from Sibenik for Domagoj Kasalo 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.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Kirill Kravtsov signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kirill Kravtsov commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

The dugout

Scott McKenna 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 Scott McKenna is on it.

In brief

202 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Arbër Hoxha breaks a bone — 25 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Karlo Išasegi asks to leave Dinamo Zagreb

“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.

Squad

Home is on Manfred Ugalde's mind

“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; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Matteo Pérez Vinlöf stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Matteo Pérez Vinlöf and Dinamo Zagreb agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb turn down Rivers United for Anthony Cletus

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Cibalia join the queue for Domagoj Kasalo

Add another name to the list: Cibalia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Domagoj Kasalo. The answer from Dinamo Zagreb has not changed — yet.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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 dugout

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In brief

201 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Arbër Hoxha out for 33 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Dinamo Zagreb are top

36 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Market

Ivo Kralj hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Gabriel Vidović pulls a muscle — 14 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Market

Hrvatski Dragovoljac come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dinamo Zagreb did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Moris Valinčić commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 4 years.

Market

Eyes on Roko Ban again

The phone has started ringing about Roko Ban again, and this time the name on the line is Sibenik. Dinamo Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

In brief

200 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Boardroom

Dinamo Zagreb have won it

This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.

Squad

A fracture rules Arbër Hoxha out for 40 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

The division’s best young player: Mislav Pasalic

A whole season of being the finest 19-year-old anybody in this league could put on a pitch. Dinamo Zagreb have him, and everybody else now knows it.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde is named among the best

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. Dinamo Zagreb will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Market

Moris Valinčić 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Sergi Domínguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

Gabriel Vidović has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

The dugout

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Market

The Luka Stojković story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luka Stojković signs something — a contract at Dinamo Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

199 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

47 days out for Arbër Hoxha after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Oisin Gallagher gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oisin Gallagher has just signed for Dinamo Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

Scott McKenna 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 Scott McKenna is on it.

The dugout

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Market

Moris Valinčić linked with a move away

The name of Moris Valinčić keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Antonio Jakir has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Antonio Jakir has written the date down.

Market

Dinamo Zagreb pick up Oisin Gallagher for nothing

The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Oisin Gallagher arrives at Dinamo Zagreb with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.

In brief

198 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Arbër Hoxha breaks a bone — 54 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

When it matters, Manfred Ugalde plays

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 dugout

Sergi Domínguez knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

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Market

Scott McKenna linked with a move away

The name of Scott McKenna keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

Market

Josip Mišić placed on the list

Dinamo Zagreb have made Josip Mišić available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

Boardroom

The Dinamo Zagreb academy earns its keep

36 graduates, from a department now rated 15 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.

In brief

197 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Arbër Hoxha out for 63 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Zagreb will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

The view from the top for Dinamo Zagreb

36 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.

The dugout

Sergi Domínguez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Aidan Harris puts it in writing

“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 Dinamo Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Nikola Čavlina 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 Dinamo Zagreb hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Domagoj Kasalo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Scott McKenna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Moris Valinčić 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 Moris Valinčić is on it.

In brief

196 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

72 days out for Arbër Hoxha after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

Market

Fran Topić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

The dugout

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The dugout

Gabriel Vidović has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

In brief

195 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

79 days out for Arbër Hoxha after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Dinamo Zagreb

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moris Valinčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

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The dugout

Scott McKenna has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Market

Moris Valinčić linked with a move away

The name of Moris Valinčić keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

194 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

87 days out for Arbër Hoxha after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Scott McKenna 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.

The dugout

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The dugout

Manfred Ugalde 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 Manfred Ugalde is on it.

Market

Scott McKenna linked with a move away

The name of Scott McKenna keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Zagreb say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

193 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

95 days out for Arbër Hoxha after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

Nobody above Dinamo Zagreb

First, on 36 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Market

Moris Valinčić raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Home is on Manfred Ugalde's mind

“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; Dinamo Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Market

Domagoj Kasalo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Josip Mišić signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Josip Mišić commits to Dinamo Zagreb for another 2 years.

The dugout

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The dugout

Josip Mišić 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.

In brief

192 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ivan Filipović damages knee ligaments — 16 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Arbër Hoxha breaks a bone — 103 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Tempers go at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Moris Valinčić 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.

The dugout

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The dugout

Gabriel Vidović 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 Gabriel Vidović is on it.

In brief

191 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ivan Filipović damages knee ligaments — 23 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

The dugout

Antonio Maurić keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Zagreb may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Nikola Čavlina raises the bar for Dinamo Zagreb

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Zagreb heard it as anything else.

Squad

Manfred Ugalde in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Scott McKenna 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.

The dugout

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Squad

International break empties Dinamo Zagreb

5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.

The dugout

When it matters, Scott McKenna plays

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 dugout

Luka Ivanušec knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

190 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ivan Filipović damages knee ligaments — 31 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

A falling-out at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Scott McKenna 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.

The dugout

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The dugout

Manfred Ugalde has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Dinamo Zagreb 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.

Squad

Anthony Cletus wants to go home

“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 Dinamo Zagreb know it.

In brief

189 Edition

The Dinamo Zagreb Gazette

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivan Filipović

39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

The view from the top for Dinamo Zagreb

36 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Domagoj Kasalo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Domagoj Kasalo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Dinamo Zagreb

Manfred Ugalde 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.

Squad

Words at Dinamo Zagreb training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moris Valinčić 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.

Market

Fran Topić wants more than Dinamo Zagreb are offering

“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.

The dugout

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Squad

Dinamo Zagreb are still strangers to each other

5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

The dugout

When it matters, Moris Valinčić plays

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.

In brief