The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christoph Hartmann has, at Jedinstvo Ub, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Toplica Grbović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Radnicki 1923 to sit and watch. I want to come back to Jedinstvo Ub and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
He is 14, and nobody at Jedinstvo Ub signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Richard Klein is 15, and Jedinstvo Ub have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Miloš Mijić was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fredrik Strandberg has just signed for Jedinstvo Ub, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Jedinstvo Ub are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub 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 Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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 Nikola Todosijević has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutIsmaël Maïga asks for a word with the manager
SquadThe training reports on Igor Vučićević are not good
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jedinstvo Ub have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Milan Mitrović 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 Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jedinstvo Ub can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Jedinstvo Ub, and 5 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Jedinstvo Ub. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jedinstvo Ub is running low.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Miloš Mijić 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić 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 Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
142% of the income goes out in wages at Jedinstvo Ub
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Toplica Grbović 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Vučićević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nikola Lazovic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jedinstvo Ub is running low.
Milan Mitrović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić 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 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.
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 Mladen Živković.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub 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 Todor Petrović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jedinstvo Ub can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Todor Petrović.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Miloš Mijić 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Okodugha 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nikola Stojković will call it something else in private.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Jedinstvo Ub told Nikola Todosijević something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Voždovac have kept their man, and Jedinstvo Ub go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Nikola Lazovic to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dušan Lišanin was one of the reasons people came, and $800.0K does not replace that by itself.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Jedinstvo Ub close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 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 had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Argeș have kept their man, and Jedinstvo Ub go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Toplica Grbović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Miloš Mijić 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Milan Mitrović 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 Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dušan Lišanin did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Milan Mitrović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jedinstvo Ub can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Jedinstvo Ub
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Dušan Lišanin, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Everybody at Jedinstvo Ub saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
At 20 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Jedinstvo Ub are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jedinstvo Ub can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jedinstvo Ub can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nikola Lazovic to a room that had heard them before.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Position 15, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Ismaël Maïga 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 Jedinstvo Ub, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Miloš Mijić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub 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.
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.
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 37 with 287 appearances behind him, and Jedinstvo Ub have to plan for both answers.
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. 16 actions, 7.04, 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 Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Jedinstvo Ub did not have in the autumn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
140% of the income goes out in wages at Jedinstvo Ub
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Position 11, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
SquadDušan Lišanin is the weekend's best young player
17Edition
The Jedinstvo Ub Gazette
23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondentUneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
Dušan Lišanin wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Dušan Lišanin found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Grafičar went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dušan Lišanin did not need any: 8.55, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Grafičar were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Aboh 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.
Milan Mitrović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Grafičar next, and one man in the Jedinstvo Ub dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
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 Jedinstvo Ub would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Todor Petrović 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 Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jedinstvo Ub, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.82 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
140% of the income goes out in wages at Jedinstvo Ub
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nikola Lazovic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Jedinstvo Ub dressing room was either.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 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.
Minute 85, against Dinamo Vranje, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Something was said to Milan Mitrović and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Jedinstvo Ub has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Aleksa Jovanović 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.
22 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.
“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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Jedinstvo Ub saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikola Stojković'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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Dubočica next, and one man in the Jedinstvo Ub dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jedinstvo Ub, another week without a signature from Nikola Todosijević.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Todor Petrović 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.
At 20 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nikola Lazovic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zemun defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Mijić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
22 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
That is the business done at Jedinstvo Ub 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Jedinstvo Ub have done the hard part with Plateau United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Jedinstvo Ub asked and Miedź Legnica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Marko Mitrović is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Jedinstvo Ub take on the side everybody is chasing
Voždovac arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Voždovac next, and one man in the Jedinstvo Ub dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jedinstvo Ub, another week without a signature from Dehinde Ibrahim.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Miloš Mijić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Jedinstvo Ub go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aleksa Jovanović 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Jedinstvo Ub know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A loan enquiry to Plateau United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Milan Kolarević has just signed for Jedinstvo Ub, and for once the answer mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Jedinstvo Ub have done the hard part with Radnik Surdulica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Milan Kolarević is a Jedinstvo Ub player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Milan Mitrović 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Marko Mitrović 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Miloš Mijić
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Jedinstvo Ub will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
17 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 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.
In brief
The dugoutNikola Stojković is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Milan Mitrović
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Todor Petrović has just signed for Jedinstvo Ub, and for once the answer mattered.
Milan Mitrović 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dušan Lišanin and Jedinstvo Ub agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Jedinstvo Ub training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Mijić 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.
Jedinstvo Ub asked and Novi Pazar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Branislav Vlahovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marko Rajkovic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milan Nastasic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Mitrović and Jedinstvo Ub agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jedinstvo Ub this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Jedinstvo Ub have made the call to Voždovac. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nikola Lazovic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jedinstvo Ub, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.