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.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Smodlaka 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dugopolje, another week without a signature from Habeeb Ogunneye.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Dugopolje. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
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.
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.
7 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.
Dugopolje close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 2 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jack Thompson is living that version at Dugopolje, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 HNK Vukovar 1991 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A loan enquiry to Chacarita Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Zdunić signs something — a contract at Dugopolje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Temperley have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Yassin Hamdi 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.
Dugopolje have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dugopolje would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yassin Hamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ferro Carril Oeste 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dugopolje will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josip Bartulić 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Zdunić signs something — a contract at Dugopolje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Dugopolje enter the window
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.
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.
Position 4 on 28 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“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.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Jackson Izquierdo and Dugopolje agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Duje Biuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno Vukas 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. Josip Kovac 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jackson Izquierdo commits to Dugopolje for another 3 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Duje Biuk 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.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Jackson Izquierdo is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Dugopolje would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dugopolje would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A new face in his position, and Duje Biuk suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Dugopolje have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ivan Težački is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Josip Balić has moved up it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Zdunić signs something — a contract at Dugopolje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
17 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.
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 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dugopolje told Dominik Balić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Dugopolje man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Cristian Martinez was the best thing in any of them.
25 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Festim Shatri 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.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
32 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
A brace, and Bruno Zdunić takes the afternoon — 9.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Zdunić provided it, and the 9.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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. Nino Cappon is living that version at Dugopolje, and it tends to show in the first month.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Boris Corluka 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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Dugopolje man
Minute 92, against Segesta, 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.
9 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Martin Babic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Dugopolje dressing room was either.
Sibenik next, and one man in the Dugopolje dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Lucko? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Anđelo Kordić’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 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.
At 30 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Dugopolje have a decision that made itself.
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Mijo Caktaš has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Dugopolje know, and have known for weeks.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Bruno Zdunić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dugopolje, another week without a signature from Karlo Bungić.
17 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Martin Babic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“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.
“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
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Dugopolje man
3‑0, and Bruno Zdunić took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dugopolje tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Bruno Zdunić takes the afternoon — 9.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Zdunić provided it, and the 9.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Balić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dominik Balić has his answer from Dugopolje; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Bruno Zdunić in the middle of it, and Imotski unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Martin Babic could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Dugopolje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Balić 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Mislav Corluka 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.
100 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Martin Babic to a room that had heard them before.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dugopolje will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dimitar Trajkov provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dimitar Trajkov. 2‑1 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ante Utrobičić 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 2‑1, Martin Babic could afford to be generous.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Stipe Mušura
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Uruguay Montevideo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
At 22 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.
9 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.
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.
“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.
The deal with Uruguay Montevideo 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.
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.
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.
Dugopolje had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Dugopolje offered $130.0K; Hajduk Split 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.
“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.
Dugopolje have made the call to Uruguay Montevideo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer went to Slaven Belupo 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lech have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Josip Kasalo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petar Kasalo 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. Boris Kasalo 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. Marko Horvat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Niko Garić scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Dugopolje will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Dugopolje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 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.