Derby days make names, and Kristijan Kovac made his against Dinamo Zagreb. 2‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 34 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Hajduk Split and a story that will outlast his contract.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sebastijan Kajtazi 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.
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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hajduk Split and HNK Rijeka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kristijan Kovac 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: Tomáš Chorý. 3‑1 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Marked 8.41 — 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.
HNK Rijeka next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Marko Livaja had Hajduk Split level again within 1 minutes, and PSV never got to play with a lead at all.
12 goals in 16 games at Lucko — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dario Marešić
Hrvatski Dragovoljac are out and Hajduk Split go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
HNK Vukovar 1991 will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hajduk Split were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Marked 9.43 — 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.
Michele Šego and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marko Livaja will call it something else in private.
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 in front and in complete control, and it finished with NK Osijek the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Hajduk Split will enjoy reviewing.
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.
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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Michele Šego was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
Leander Dendoncker and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Iker Pozo 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.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
“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 14 say he has earned the hearing.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Livaja has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Player ratingsThe one thing Michele Šego could not do
2‑7. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
9 goals in one match, Haji Wright on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and Standard Liege.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Haji Wright. 3‑1 against Istra 1961, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hajduk Split will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.72 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bruno Mišura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Haji Wright wants continental football; whether Hajduk Split can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
6 goals in one match, Marko Livaja on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and Luzern.
In brief
Player ratingsHaji Wright was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hajduk Split will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Vitebsk for Bruno Mišura 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 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.
Michele Šego 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.
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Iker Pozo 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 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.
“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 9 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.
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.
7.88, 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Hajduk Split close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 20 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.
“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.
Michele Šego 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 23 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.
HNK Rijeka next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
17 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Haji Wright takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Haji Wright provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
24 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.
Bodo/Glimt did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $7.0M for Tomáš Chorý, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomáš Chorý has, at Hajduk Split, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albion have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Leander Dendoncker and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Aug 2027
After 8 games, Hajduk Split finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against HNK Gorica; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
In brief
The terracesHajduk Split spend $7.0M on the signing the town wanted
32 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.
Hajduk Split and Bodo/Glimt have settled on $7.0M. 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Michele Šego takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michele Šego provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Leander Dendoncker, marked 7.92, 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
41 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 Al Wasl 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Hajduk Split and Zadar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
49 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.
The offer from Dugopolje for Mateo Juričić 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.
Kristijan Kovac was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 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.
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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Karl Harry Leban 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.
8 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.
HNK Rijeka paid $16.0K 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marko Sutalo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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.
Michele Šego 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Iker Pozo 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 Dante Stipica has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 5 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.
Lovre Lončar has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Lovre Rogić
40 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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 offer from Rotor for Lovre Lončar 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.
Hajduk Split asked and Al Wasl said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Michele Šego and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The name of Mateo Juričić has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Pozo 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Alberto Del Moral’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.
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.
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. Cibalia have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hajduk Split will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
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 fee is $6.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Zadar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kristijan Kovac has just signed for Hajduk Split, and for once the answer mattered.
Istra 1961 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marino Skelin is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Kristijan Kovac from Zadar for $6.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 Zadar 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 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.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Ante Grbic 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Pozo 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 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.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Livaja has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes Ivica Ivušić a promise
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filip Taraba has just signed for Hajduk Split, and for once the answer mattered.
Hajduk Split offered $810.0K; Cibalia 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.
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. Rudes have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Mateo Juričić has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$750.0K settles it between the clubs for Filip Taraba
Rudes have accepted the money. What Hajduk Split 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. Zadar have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hajduk Split have had the benefit of it.
“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.
$630.0K on the table at Cibalia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
29 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hajduk Split have had the benefit of it.
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.
Marino Skelin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Market31 May 2027
Dante Stipica returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
In brief
The dugoutDavyd Fesyuk asks for a word with the manager
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.79 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Toni Ruso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Michele Šego 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 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Juričić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 May 2027
Iker Pozo 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 Lovre Rogić 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.
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
19 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Iker Pozo 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 10 appearances in 39 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 Haji Wright 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
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 watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hrvatski Dragovoljac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Lovre Rogić
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dennis Hadžikadunić, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Iker Pozo 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.
Luka Hodak and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hajduk Split and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
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.
40 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Juričić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 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 35 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Livaja signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo 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 7 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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Pozo 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 did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hajduk Split and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Šimun Hrgović signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hajduk Split. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Leander Dendoncker’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Two goals and a mark of 9.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Pozo 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Livaja signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hajduk Split and fight for my place.” 10 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
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 Lovre Rogić is on it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Toni Ruso 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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Juričić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Hadžikadunić 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.
Michele Šego 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.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hrvatski Dragovoljac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 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.
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 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.
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 Haji Wright is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Livaja signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hajduk Split, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Šimun Hrgović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He 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.
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.
21 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Hajduk Split have paid $7.1M for Iker Pozo, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lucko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Iker Pozo is living that version at Hajduk Split, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Hajduk Split close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 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 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.
Iker Pozo was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
In brief
SquadŠimun Hrgović falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hajduk Split have done the hard part with Rodina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb wanted more than $440.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The name of Bruno Mišura has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Luka Hodak 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.
35 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sibenik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Jazira have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Sibenik for Duje Matić 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.
$440.0K 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Šime Perko reports back to Hajduk Split with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Šimun Hrgović 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.
Ante Grbic 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Roko Brajković provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Hajduk Split have paid $4.7M for Ante Grbic, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Toni Silić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ante Grbic has, at Hajduk Split, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Bruno Mišura, 18, 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 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Hajduk Split have gone to Polissia 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.
“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.
Hajduk Split have gone to Zadar 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hajduk Split have had the benefit of it.
The offer went to Rudes 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.
The phone has started ringing about Toni Silić again, and this time the name on the line is CFR Cluj. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lovre Lončar
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Michele Šego 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivica Ivušić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
35 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.
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.
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.
Lovre Rogić has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marin Šotiček has written the date down.
6‑0 against CSKA 1948, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
“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.
“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 4 years.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Haji Wright was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hajduk Split and CSKA 1948 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mateo Vrsaljko kept it short after the 6‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutLovre Rogić has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
Duje Matić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abdoulie Sanyang 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
One of our own is behind an import at Hajduk Split
He is 33, he has been here since he was a boy, and the shirt he grew up expecting has been given to somebody flown in for it. That grievance belongs to the town as much as to the player.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Dennis Hadžikadunić has moved up it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ron Raçi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Ivica Ivušić a promise
1‑6 against PSV. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
40 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
7 goals in one match, Marin Šotiček on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and PSV.
Luka Hodak 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.
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 Ron Raçi.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dinamo Zagreb scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hajduk Split told Lovre Rogić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Michele Šego.
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 brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dinamo Zagreb next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hajduk Split told Haji Wright something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Mateo Vrsaljko could afford to be generous.
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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Lovre Rogić
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
2‑4 against Crvena Zvezda. 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 a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrion Pajaziti provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals in one match, Adrion Pajaziti on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and Slaven Belupo.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hajduk Split and Crvena Zvezda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Michele Šego 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Haji Wright at his very best
Looking aheadThe big one: HNK Rijeka come into view
26 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hajduk Split will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Haji Wright had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Lokomotiva Zagreb were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Haji Wright takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Haji Wright provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
33 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hajduk Split will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lovre Rogić, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Hadžikadunić 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.
41 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hajduk Split will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and NK Osijek spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marko Livaja. 2‑1 against NK Osijek, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Mateo Vrsaljko could afford to be generous.
48 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against NK Varazdin, and it could have been more.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
5‑2. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
23 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Haji Wright was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
20 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 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.” Mateo Vrsaljko on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Livaja has become a man the manager trusts
1‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hajduk Split and PSV in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mateo Vrsaljko after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“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.
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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Slaven Belupo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
16 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Haji Wright again, and this time the name on the line is Zurich. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hajduk Split will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mateo Vrsaljko was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Hajduk Split dressing room was either.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.77 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
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.
$16.8M. No player has ever cost Hajduk Split more, and expectation arrives with him.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Haji Wright takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Haji Wright provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Hajduk Split offered $8.0M; FC Midtjylland 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Rosenborg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hajduk Split have done the hard part with Slaven Belupo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
6 goals in one match, Haji Wright on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and NK Osijek.
Everything agreed with Coventry City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$8.0M on the table at FC Midtjylland. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zadar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slaven Belupo have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Hadžikadunić 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 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 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Marko Livaja at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Michele Šego at his very best
The offer went to Coventry City 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marin Šotiček did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dennis Hadžikadunić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Michele Šego was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 21 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.