The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Marko Livaja 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 new man at Hajduk Split has worked with Ilja Lantratov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roko Brajković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dario Marešić 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 new man at Hajduk Split has worked with Ilja Lantratov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ilja Lantratov: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.43 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Dominik Babić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 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.
1 for Joao Ortiz, marked 7.99, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The new man at Hajduk Split has worked with Ilja Lantratov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roko Vojvodić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marko Livaja 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 new man at Hajduk Split has worked with Ilja Lantratov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Levadiakos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Šimun Hrgović'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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roko Vojvodić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Hajduk Split hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marko Livaja 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 new man at Hajduk Split has worked with Ilja Lantratov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 7 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
HNK Gorica will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hajduk Split were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Marked 8.34 — 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.
Position 3, 15 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.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Zudin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split 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. Sturm Graz have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Hajduk Split will try again when the window opens; Rudes may not be selling by then.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split 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.” Hajduk Split have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Hajduk Split and Rudes have settled on $270.0K. 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 26 gone
That is the business done at Hajduk Split 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hajduk Split have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Moscow is saying, and nobody at Hajduk Split 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 Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 6.99 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sunderland keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$38.6M on the table at Bournemouth. 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Hajduk Split asked and Racing Genk 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 phone has started ringing about Dennis Hadžikadunić again, and this time the name on the line is Poltava. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer went to Sunderland 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luka Hodak had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Karlo Muhar delivers — 6.21
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Karlo Muhar scored, was marked 6.21, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Marko Livaja 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BSK Bijelo Brdo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything agreed with NK Osijek, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Minute 88, against NK Osijek, 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
1 for Karlo Muhar, marked 7.36, 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.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and NK Osijek 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ivica Ivušić
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to NK Osijek this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
9 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The phone has started ringing about Toni Silić again, and this time the name on the line is NK Domzale. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antonio Srna has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
SquadRon Raçi falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutIvan Katić faces a manager he fell out with
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jadran Luka Ploce waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hrvatski Dragovoljac had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Irtysh for Peter Nnaemeka Ugwuodo 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.
NK Osijek paid $1.4M and Hajduk Split took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Marko Livaja 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 Ron Raçi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Opatija had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Stripfing for Michele Šego 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hajduk Split heard it as anything else.
Marko Livaja 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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The name of Alberto Del Moral has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Hajduk Split know it.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ismaël Diallo signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The phone has started ringing about Toni Silić again, and this time the name on the line is NK Domzale. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
Roko Brajković 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.
Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Hajduk Split have made the call to Aris Thessaloniki. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Hajduk Split have made the call to Shakhtar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ron Raçi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bjelovar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $5.4M has been paid because Toni Fruk is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adrion Pajaziti and Hajduk Split agree another 4 years.
Marko Livaja 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Hajduk Split offered $130.0K; HNK Rijeka said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Toni Fruk was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $5.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Uljanik Pula had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $144.6K — a club that wants Branko Pavić enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to HNK Rijeka this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Hajduk Split asked and Orijent 1919 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Abdoulie Sanyang 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 name of Mathieu Acapandié has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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. Hajduk Split will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Marešić 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.
24 appearances and 6 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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.
Marko Livaja and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Hajduk Split and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two 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 Dario Marešić is on it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
28 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hajduk Split. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Roko Brajković 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Luka Hodak 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.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Solin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hajduk Split. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch10 May 2027
Davyd Fesyuk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 18 appearances at Dubrava. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hajduk Split can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 May 2027
Luka Hodak 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Hajduk Split will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hajduk Split has been clear about where Mateo Juričić stands, which is more than many ever get.
5 goals in 23 games at Djakovo Croatia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hajduk Split, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadJoao Ortiz looks at the other side of the line
11 goals in 21 games at Croatia Zmijavci — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Marko Livaja is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateo Juričić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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.
Abdoulie Sanyang and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
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 Karlo Muhar has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 9 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Carlos Martín is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Hajduk Split that is a harder question to answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marin Šotiček trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ETO Győr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Dmytro Zudin has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 goals in 24 games at Hrvatski Dragovoljac — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Roko Brajković and Hajduk Split agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Marko Livaja is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Karlo Muhar has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dennis Hadžikadunić signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Šimun Hrgović and Hajduk Split agree another 5 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 Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Luka Hodak 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.
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 Dario Marešić is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrion Pajaziti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathieu Acapandié will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Hajduk Split know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 9 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ron Raçi'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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hajduk Split can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dmytro Zudin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Hajduk Split would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Hajduk Split know it.
11 goals in 21 games at Croatia Zmijavci — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Luka Hodak 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dennis Hadžikadunić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Dario Marešić is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hajduk Split, and both men came out saying it was fine.
28 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Hajduk Split and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathieu Acapandié will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Carlos Martín is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hajduk Split has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
Davyd Fesyuk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 18 appearances at Dubrava. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Add another name to the list: Djakovo Croatia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luka Hodak. The answer from Hajduk Split has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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 watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Solin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hajduk Split would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Hajduk Split until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dubrava have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Roko Brajković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Luka Hodak 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.
“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 Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Varteks had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Corinthians is saying, and nobody at Hajduk Split is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hajduk Split have made the call to Lokomotiv Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Hajduk Split will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutRoko Brajković is still being punished for one mistake
Hajduk Split had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rudes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The phone has started ringing about Luka Hodak again, and this time the name on the line is Varteks. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Luka Hodak 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.
Nobody at Hajduk Split will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Ron Raçi's mistake
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” BSK Bijelo Brdo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from First Vienna for Toni Silić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hajduk Split has been clear about where Dario Melnjak stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Hajduk Split had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer from Varteks for Luka Hodak 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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 Hajduk Split know it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ismaël Diallo has his answer from Hajduk Split; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 18 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Marko Livaja 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 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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 Hajduk Split 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.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Hajduk Split $2.0K. Šime Perko left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Leander Dendoncker and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
Davyd Fesyuk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 16 appearances at Dubrava. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Beaten 0‑3 by Dinamo Zagreb in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
1‑3 against Volendam. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Roko Brajković 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dennis Hadžikadunić.
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 Joao Ortiz is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luka Hodak
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Hajduk Split will be judged on one thing only.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Dario Perisic left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑2 away to the standard of OB. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
7.30, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Marko Livaja and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Carlos Martín’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hajduk Split.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Carlos Martín was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Something was said to Joao Ortiz and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Karlo Muhar.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Slaven Belupo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leander Dendoncker, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Luka Hodak 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.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hajduk Split, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Lokomotiva Zagreb next, and one man in the Hajduk Split dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
5 goals in 13 games at Croatia Zmijavci — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michele Šego signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Luka Jurak’s exile
1‑2 against KAA Gent. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Marko Livaja 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 mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dennis Hadžikadunić.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hajduk Split, and 10 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ivica Ivušić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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.
A 1‑1 draw with NK Osijek leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dario Perisic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Hajduk Split dressing room was either.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
0‑2 against KAA Gent, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Abdoulie Sanyang and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdoulie Sanyang. 1‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Leander Dendoncker.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ron Raçi has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 6.80 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Carlos Martín was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Hajduk Split dressing room in a hurry
At 22 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.
Marko Livaja was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Roko Brajković has his answer from Hajduk Split; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Position 6 on 12 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.
2‑1 against Volendam, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Marko Livaja was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Position 6, 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Hajduk Split dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luka Hodak 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 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.
Beaten 0‑1 by Dinamo Zagreb in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Michele Šego and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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.
2‑0 against OB, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Šimun Hrgović 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“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.
Position 2, 12 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
$2.3M was the most the club would pay and NK Osijek 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. Istra 1961 have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 19 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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 goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“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 Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to NK Osijek this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Hajduk Split close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 9 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.4M — a club that wants Luka Vrbančić enough to be asked twice.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Leander Dendoncker is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Hajduk Split prefer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Luka Hodak 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
Portland Timbers did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $7.5M for Joao Ortiz, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Hajduk Split offered $800.0K; Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Joao Ortiz was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.5M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adrion Pajaziti 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Hajduk Split have gone to Portland Timbers 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hajduk Split have gone to Yokohama F. Marinos 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.
$800.0K on the table at Lokomotiva 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $389.4K — a club that wants Jurica Poldrugač enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Duje Matić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The name of Duje Matić has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Marin Šotiček decided nobody was going anywhere. NK Varazdin had no time left to answer.
Hajduk Split asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Lucko have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dmytro Zudin. The answer from Hajduk Split has not changed — yet.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marin Šotiček 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: Marin Šotiček. 1‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hajduk Split are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Marko Livaja 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: Carlos Martín. 2‑1 against HNK Vukovar 1991, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The name of Marino Skelin has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luka Hodak 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Hajduk Split 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dario Perisic on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.