The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Medin Gashi 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 point taken on 88 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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
NK Osijek 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.
In brief
The dugoutWisdom Sule knocks on the manager’s door
24 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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dino Kasalo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 HNK Gorica will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Darijan Žarkov: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
HNK Vukovar 1991 go through and HNK Gorica go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
39 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Medin Gashi 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dino Kasalo after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
45 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.
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.
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.
“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 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Leš 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Slaven Belupo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ognjen Bakić, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Tom Lacoux'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.
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 Dušan Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 6, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
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.
NK Osijek left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Medin Gashi 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.
Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Chances created: 7. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
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 dugoutMatej Livaja knocks on the manager’s door
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Medin Gashi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrik Mijić. 2‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. HNK Gorica have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against NK Osijek in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Medin Gashi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 4 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.
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.
HNK Gorica asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 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.
The name of Medin Gashi has come up in conversations HNK Gorica were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jakov Miholić 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.
Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon HNK Gorica had all but put away. Istra 1961 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tijuana 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.
Hajduk Split pay $700.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 17 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hajduk Split waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HNK Gorica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $930.0K has been paid because Matej Livaja is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matej Livaja has just signed for HNK Gorica, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about HNK Gorica and HNK Rijeka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The offer from Torpedo-BelAZ 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$930.0K settles it between the clubs for Matej Livaja
Zadar have accepted the money. What HNK Gorica do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Jurica Pršir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakov Miholić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martin Petkovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The phone has started ringing about Medin Gashi again, and this time the name on the line is Torpedo-BelAZ. HNK Gorica are listening politely and promising nothing.
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. Legia have kept their man, and HNK Gorica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Lokomotiva Zagreb, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.