21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
1 for Ognjen Bakić, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Patrik Mijić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ognjen Bakić. 1‑0 against NK Osijek, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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 1‑0, Bojan Erceg could afford to be generous.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every HNK Gorica game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Makhachkala runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; HNK Gorica are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica 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.” HNK Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
HNK Gorica close the window on a squad of their own making
26 in and 15 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. Bartol Kunert is living that version at HNK Gorica, and it tends to show in the first month.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Bojan Erceg to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.” HNK Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at HNK Gorica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Patrik Mijić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrik Mijić. 1‑0 against Istra 1961, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica 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 HNK Gorica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Patrik Mijić 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 Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
7 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.
Nobody at HNK Gorica will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The 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.
0‑3 to HNK Rijeka, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hisham Al-Dubais had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Bartol Kardum, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Patrik Mijić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Bogojević 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Bartol Kardum, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Patrik Mijić 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.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrik Mijić. 1‑0 against Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HNK Gorica know it.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona to sit and watch. I want to come back to HNK Gorica and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Patrik Mijić
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Patrik Mijić 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tomislav 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $420.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cibalia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hisham Al-Dubais has, at HNK Gorica, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
HNK Gorica asked and Dinamo Bucharest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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 HNK Gorica, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Cibalia 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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Segesta have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Patrik Mijić is on it.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 21 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.
Patrik Mijić 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 name of Davyd Fesyuk has come up in conversations HNK Gorica were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
HNK Gorica asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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 offer from Hajduk Split for Patrik Mijić 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Paris Elmensdorp is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Patrik Mijić 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.
Zadar paid $33.0K and HNK Gorica took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tusker waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HNK Gorica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Legia have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. HNK Gorica would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
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.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Kiryat Shmona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Medin Gashi. The answer from HNK Gorica has not changed — yet.
$360.0K was the most the club would pay and Slaven Belupo were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Sigma Olomouc 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 HNK Gorica 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.
HNK Gorica have gone to Slaven Belupo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Patrik Mijić 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. Segesta have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HNK Gorica know it.
Spartak Trnava 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 HNK Gorica will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. HNK Gorica had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
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 Hadji Issa Moustapha is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Stefan Perić a promise
Jurica Pršir 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.
Jurica Pršir was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Bogojević 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 Patrik Mijić is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patrik Mijić signs something — a contract at HNK Gorica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HNK Gorica. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Patrik Mijić’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Patrik Mijić 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 Bruno Bogojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bruno Bogojević is on it.
Position 5, 26 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and HNK Gorica know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dušan Stevanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HNK Gorica. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Darijan Žarkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ante Erceg
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Stefan Perić 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 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jurica Pršir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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 HNK Gorica 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HNK Gorica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jurica Pršir signs something — a contract at HNK Gorica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Apr 2027
8 new faces, and HNK Gorica 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jurica Pršir was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at HNK Gorica can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HNK Gorica know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutMedin Gashi knocks on the manager’s door
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jurica Pršir 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 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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 dugout22 Mar 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 Bojan Erceg 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 Patrik Mijić is on it.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Husein Sumbuljević and HNK Gorica agree another 4 years.
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 Bruno Bogojević is on it.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zvonimir Šarlija and HNK Gorica agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Niko Cop 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. Filip Bilic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dejan Bjelica has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marco Orsic 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.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 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 Medin Gashi has written the date down.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jurica Pršir 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 Stefan Perić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Patrik Mijić is on it.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
HNK Gorica asked and Stabaek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Perić 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jurica Pršir signs something — a contract at HNK Gorica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 5 on 26 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Stefan Perić a promise
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Kryvbas for Medin Gashi 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.
HNK Gorica had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sturm Graz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica 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. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 6 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at HNK Gorica 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.
HNK Gorica had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Clermont Foot, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Bogojević 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Josip Baturina has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means HNK Gorica have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. HNK Gorica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 HNK Gorica, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jenson Jones is living that version at HNK Gorica, and it tends to show in the first month.
Jurica Pršir 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. Grasshopper have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Bucharest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Hajduk Split paid $450.0K and HNK Gorica took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 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.
Nobody at HNK Gorica 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.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
HNK Rijeka are out and HNK Gorica go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Patrik Mijić takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Mijić provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. HNK Gorica have done the hard part with Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
HNK Gorica had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica 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 Bruno Bogojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
HNK Gorica asked and Lokomotiva 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. HNK Gorica will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Jurica Pršir 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. HNK Gorica have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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.
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.
HNK Gorica have made the call to Lokomotiva Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. HNK Gorica will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Perić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jurica Pršir signs something — a contract at HNK Gorica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
26 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Paris Elmensdorp arrives at HNK Gorica with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica 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 HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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.
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.
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jurica Pršir 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 Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hadji Issa Moustapha and HNK Gorica agree another 4 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. HNK Gorica told Jakov Filipović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Jurica Pršir 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Darijan Žarkov commits to HNK Gorica for another 1 years.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Théo Epailly 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation HNK Gorica are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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: 13. 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.
Something was said to Luka Vrzić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at HNK Gorica pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
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.” Bojan Erceg chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luka Ćurković has just signed for HNK Gorica, and for once the answer mattered.
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.” Luka Ćurković and HNK Gorica agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bojan Erceg, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Wisdom Sule obliged against HNK Vukovar 1991. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is HNK Gorica.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. HNK Vukovar 1991 will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Luka Vrzić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Vrzić 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.
0‑2 to Istra 1961, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Wisdom Sule was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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.
Hadji Issa Moustapha 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and HNK Gorica 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bojan Erceg after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Luka Vrzić'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.
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.
A brace, and Patrik Mijić takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Mijić provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakov Pranjić 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bojan Erceg, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Jurica Pršir 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 1‑0 win over Slaven Belupo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Patrik Mijić 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bruno Bogojević’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and HNK Gorica needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A brace, and Patrik Mijić takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Mijić provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darijan Žarkov and HNK Gorica agree another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Jurica Pršir
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jurica Pršir has come out of that comparison in the side, and HNK Gorica have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Bojan Erceg kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Medin Gashi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Slaven Belupo next, and one man in the HNK Gorica dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Gomel for Medin Gashi 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.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jakov Pranjić 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.
Position 5, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and HNK Gorica 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Bojan Erceg left the room before anybody could ask which.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Patrik Mijić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of HNK Gorica and NK Osijek.
Marked 9.59 — 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakov Pranjić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torpedo Kutaisi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match12 Sep 2026
Patrik Mijić wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Patrik Mijić found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and NK Varazdin went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the HNK Gorica support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bojan Erceg, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Korona keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Bogojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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 offer went to Dinamo Zagreb 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.
HNK Gorica offered $430.0K; Slaven Belupo 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jakov Pranjić 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.
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.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. HNK Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$1.8M was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Zagreb were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$430.0K on the table at Slaven Belupo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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 offer from Gomel for Medin Gashi 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.
HNK Gorica and Sesvete have settled on $730.0K. 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Vrzić did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Astra is saying, and nobody at HNK Gorica is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chase for Davyd Fesyuk ended with $110.0K changing hands and Hajduk Split out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$46.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Zagreb were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
He is 19 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everything agreed with Hajduk Split, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$46.0K on the table at Dinamo Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dario 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Sucic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
Jurica Pršir 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dušan Stevanović 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Southampton have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Still no offer on the table, and Jurica Pršir’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and HNK Gorica 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Davor Matijaš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.