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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniel Souček'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.
Zlin next, and one man in the Jablonec dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Chances created: 8. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Filip Zorvan 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Jan Hanuš knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Jan Schick to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Marked 4.85. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Hradec Králové next, and one man in the Jablonec dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Eduard Sobol and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Filip Novák'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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jan Schick after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jan Hanuš’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jablonec needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Sebastian Nebyla 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 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jan Schick was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Jablonec dressing room was either.
Nobody at Jablonec 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jablonec have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sebastian Nebyla 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jablonec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jablonec have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jablonec can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jablonec will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Richard Sedláček’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jablonec needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sebastian Nebyla signs something — a contract at Jablonec or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Vakhtang Chanturishvili 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Jablonec would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jablonec will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 17 combined actions and a mark of 7.09, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I watch every Jablonec game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vlašim runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑1 to Pardubice, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jan Schick to a room that had heard them before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jablonec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jablonec can tell you which week it ends in.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jablonec will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Eduard Sobol 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.
11 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Jan Schick to a room that had heard them before.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Jablonec will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jablonec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ivan Bašić scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samuel Obinaia is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A 1‑0 win over Slovan Liberec, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jan Schick on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Jablonec told Dušan Pavlović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jablonec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Sebastian Nebyla 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Jablonec, and 0 appearances in 5 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 Saidou Alioum is on it.
Slovan Liberec next, and one man in the Jablonec dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jablonec will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Sebastian Nebyla 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Jablonec has been clear about where Lamin Jawo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jan Schick after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jablonec will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonín Růsek. 1‑0 against Mlada Boleslav, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7.98, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Jablonec had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Jablonec are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jan Schick, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nemanja Tekijaški 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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Nobody at Jablonec 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jablonec will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Jablonec, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Jablonec.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jan Schick, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Success Makanjuola 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jablonec can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Jablonec 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 Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jiří Sláma 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daniel Souček’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Jablonec needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A brace, and Jan Chramosta takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jan Chramosta provided it, and the 8.54 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 Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Zlin tried to reorganise, Jablonec did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The offer from ASO Chlef for Ebrima Singhateh 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.
The name of Tomáš Schánělec has come up in conversations Jablonec were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Antonín Růsek was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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 offer from NK Osijek for Mick van Buren 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.
The fee is $570.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Astana drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Sebastian Nebyla 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.
12 combined actions and 6.83. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Slavia Prague defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Hradec Králové next, and one man in the Jablonec dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
SquadIvan Bašić banks a contract that will last him
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 17 actions, 6.77, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jablonec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Patrik Masopust 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Filip Zorvan takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Filip Zorvan provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The shirt still fits. Tomáš Schánělec is back at Jablonec, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.