54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
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 Josip Perajica is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stipe Mušura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Josip Perajica 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.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Domagoj Pavičić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Osijek have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivano Udovičić 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.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Duje Biuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dugopolje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mislav Pasalic 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Duje Bogdan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Dugopolje 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dugopolje ran out of time with Sesvete. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dugopolje have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Stipe Mušura 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.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dugopolje lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Dugopolje and Dinamo Zagreb have settled on $1.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dugopolje have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Roko Kurtović 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.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dugopolje lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Dugopolje 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roko Kurtović 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Josip Bartulić has his answer from Dugopolje; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Dugopolje are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dugopolje lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dugopolje people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dugopolje have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ivano Udovičić has, at Dugopolje, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Vukovar 1991 have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ante Srna has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno Horvat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Dugopolje and Dinamo Zagreb have settled on $430.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to NK Osijek; Dugopolje go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sesvete is saying, and nobody at Dugopolje is enjoying the guessing.
The shirt still fits. Faton Krasnići is back at Dugopolje, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Add another name to the list: Imotski have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Duje Biuk. The answer from Dugopolje has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dugopolje have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stipe Mušura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Josip Perajica was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It 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.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Delić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Josip Perajica is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMarin Delić knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Mijo Caktaš is 35, with 391 appearances behind him, and Dugopolje will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugopolje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Delić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Niko Colak to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Domagoj Pavičić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Delić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Hrvatski Dragovoljac will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nemanja Gavrić. 1‑0 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ivan Delić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Niko Colak could afford to be generous.
HNK Rijeka go through and Dugopolje go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Borys Skraburski, 19, 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 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 20 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Delić 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Niko Colak chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borys Skraburski did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomislav Adolf Tomić and Dugopolje agree another 2 years.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Lucko were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ivan Delić. 2‑1 against Lucko, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Niko Colak on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Cibalia left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Delić 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Niko Colak to a room that had heard them before.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borys Skraburski did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zoran Nižić and Dugopolje agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Delić 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Domagoj Pavičić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Niko Colak to a room that had heard them before.
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 Andrija Balić is on it.
In brief
The dugoutKarlo Bungić knocks on the manager's door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Delić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Niko Colak to a room that had heard them before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrija Balić has his answer from Dugopolje; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutJosip Balić knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Delić 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugopolje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Dugopolje close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Niko Colak after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Dugopolje have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Dugopolje found something the first half had given no notice of, and Lucko could not hold what they had.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.51 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Borys Skraburski, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The deal with Hajduk Split is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiva Zagreb have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zoran Nižić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dugopolje needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dugopolje will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Roman Horný 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Niko Colak after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Dugopolje know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
The dugoutAndrija Balić has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dugopolje have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dugopolje have done the hard part with Hajduk Split, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Fabian Salmon has agreed terms with Imotski for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sesvete; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dugopolje have done the hard part with HNK Gorica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Dugopolje can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Niko Colak after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dugopolje have done the hard part with Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Segesta moved on, Josip Bartulić reports back to Dugopolje, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Dugopolje
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Dugopolje asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mario Colak is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matej Ivanovic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
Player ratingsJosip Balić beats them one at a time
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dugopolje have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Roko Kurtović has improved at 28, 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.
Dugopolje have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Green was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dugopolje told Josip Perajica something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrija Balić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Dugopolje asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marin Delić is 19, and Dugopolje have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Dugopolje have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dugopolje have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$15.0K on the table at Hajduk Split. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Slaven Belupo for Roko Kurtović 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.
“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 Dugopolje, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 20 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.
$57.0K on the table at Hajduk Split. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Dugopolje asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dugopolje lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Zagreb; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Roko Kurtović again, and this time the name on the line is Slaven Belupo. Dugopolje are listening politely and promising nothing.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 28 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at HNK Rijeka is saying, and nobody at Dugopolje is enjoying the guessing.
Dugopolje asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Špiro Peričić 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugopolje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dugopolje have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Dinamo Zagreb is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dugopolje has been clear about where Josip Bartulić stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutJosip Balić knocks on the manager's door
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugopolje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 3, 28 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.
Špiro Peričić 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.
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 Andrija Balić is on it.
Špiro Peričić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karlo Bungić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Špiro Peričić 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.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugopolje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jonan Tan
Tomislav Adolf Tomić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Delić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nino Cappon is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Dugopolje 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.
Špiro Peričić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dugopolje will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Špiro Peričić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugopolje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dugopolje. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dugopolje has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dijanis Dudić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dugopolje will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Ammeer Auwal 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.
6 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.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Dugopolje argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
In brief
SquadOne of our own is behind an import at Dugopolje
The dugoutJosip Balić knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Market1 Mar 2027
Josip Bartulić returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
He is 30, he has been here since he was a boy, and the shirt he grew up expecting has been given to somebody flown in for it. That grievance belongs to the town as much as to the player.
“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 Dugopolje will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Position 3, 28 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrija Balić has his answer from Dugopolje; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Andrija Balić is on it.
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 Marin Karabatić has written the date down.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Mijo Caktaš is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugopolje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Utrobičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Dugopolje 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dugopolje and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Utrobičić 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.
Špiro Peričić 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
In brief
The dugoutDijanis Dudić asks for a word with the manager
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at HNK Rijeka is saying, and nobody at Dugopolje is enjoying the guessing.
The deal with NK Varazdin is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 20, and nobody at Dugopolje signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Dugopolje and HNK Rijeka have settled on $1.9M. 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Dugopolje is enjoying the guessing.
Ammeer Auwal 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.
A loan enquiry to Radnik Surdulica: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
Bruno Zdunić has gone, the accounts have $940.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Hajduk Split paid $940.0K and Dugopolje took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Nemanja Gavrić 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.
Rudes will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gabriel Jerečić has pre-agreed a move to Dugopolje, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikola Orsic 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Goran Kramaric is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Hajduk Split have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The deal with HNK Rijeka is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nino Cappon has just signed for Dugopolje, and for once the answer mattered.
Dinamo Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Borys Skraburski has just signed for Dugopolje, and for once the answer mattered.
Cibalia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Karlo Vrljić has pre-agreed a move to Dugopolje, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
He is 18, and nobody at Dugopolje signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Dugopolje are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutAndrija Balić has become a man the manager trusts
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dugopolje know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Ammeer Auwal’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marin Grbic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Niko Pjaca 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.
“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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
SquadAndro Sokač is training like a man with a point to make
“I watch every Dugopolje game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hrvatski Dragovoljac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Špiro Peričić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Andrija Balić is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutDuje Biuk asks for a word with the manager
Tomislav Adolf Tomić 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ivan Delić.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ammeer Auwal is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Nobody at Dugopolje is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ammeer Auwal did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Tomislav Adolf Tomić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Niko Colak on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marin Karabatić, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dijanis Dudić is living that version at Dugopolje, and it tends to show in the first month.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Domagoj Stanisic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcelo Kovac has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
Position 2, 23 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Andro Sokač delivers — 7.25
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andro Sokač scored, was marked 7.25, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Utrobičić 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.
Minute 86, against Sibenik, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zoran Nižić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dugopolje needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dugopolje will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Dugopolje will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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.
Andro Sokač was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno Vrsaljko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Utrobičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Niko Colak could afford to be generous.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Mijo Caktaš is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Something was said to Ammeer Auwal and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.86 for the rest of it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I watch every Dugopolje game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hrvatski Dragovoljac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Niko Garić 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.
A season average of 7.30 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Dugopolje 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.
Bruno Zdunić 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dugopolje and Zadar in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Beaten 6 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Bruno Zdunić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Niko Colak after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Dugopolje is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Three points for Dugopolje, 2‑0 the final word against Rudes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ante Utrobičić 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Niko Colak could afford to be generous.
Chances created: 11. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mijo Caktaš's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 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.
Dugopolje ran out of time with HNK Gorica. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Bruno Zdunić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Levadiakos is saying, and nobody at Dugopolje is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to HNK Gorica 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.
Dugopolje offered $16.0K; HNK Rijeka 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.
Dugopolje asked and Gornik Zabrze said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Rudes go through and Dugopolje go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dugopolje can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Andrija Balić delivers — 7.75
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andrija Balić scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The deal with Levadiakos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.54, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Bruno Zdunić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The offer went to HNK Rijeka 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Legia have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Bruno Zdunić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mato Babic 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Petar Budimir has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dino Majer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Bruno Zdunić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugopolje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Dugopolje asked and Bohemians 1905 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Zdunić. 2‑1 against Sesvete, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dimitar Trajkov 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Dimitar Trajkov 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.