From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
10 matches without a win for Mladost Lucani
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Mladost Lucani are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Jan 2027
Position 14, 19 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Jan 2027
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mladost Lucani can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Edin Ajdinović 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mladost Lucani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Dec 2026
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Nikola Boranijašević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Bojić 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mladost Lucani can tell you which week it ends in.
Match26 Dec 2026
Napredak left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nemanja Petrović damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
8 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Vukašin 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Jovan Ćirić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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
Half-satisfied: Uros Babic on the draw
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Nobody at Mladost Lucani is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mladost Lucani will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Dec 2026
7 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Vukašin 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksandar Pantić, and the manager let it.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Nikola Andrić, 34, rolls back the years — 7.96
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nemanja Žunić commits to Mladost Lucani for another 4 years.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
Nemanja Petrović damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Nikola Boranijašević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Nov 2026
OFK Beograd left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irfan Hadžić, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Uros Babic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mladost Lucani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match18 Nov 2026
Out, 1‑3 to Crvena Zvezda, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Jovan Ćirić, 19, steals the show — 7.98
Marked 7.98 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match21 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Nikola Boranijašević 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 terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Jovan Ćirić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Andrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Aleksandar Pantić
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Joshua Kayode hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mladost Lucani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Nikola Boranijašević 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Petar Bojić 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Mladost Lucani did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Petar Bojić 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Veljko Nastasic 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Jovan Ćirić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miloš Cvetković, and the manager let it.
Match9 Nov 2026
Position 10, 16 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nemanja Petrović damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.95 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dušan Jovančić, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Something was said to Edin Ajdinović and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Saša Stamenković
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Saša Stamenković has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mladost Lucani have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Uros Babic: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Mladost Lucani scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Jovan Ćirić, 19, steals the show — 8.35
Marked 8.35 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Petar Bojić, 35, rolls back the years — 7.95
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Vukašin 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Petar Bojić 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Radnik Surdulica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Jovan Ćirić
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nemanja Petrović damages knee ligaments — 102 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
“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 Mladost Lucani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Mladost Lucani's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mladost Lucani has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a goal for Mladost Lucani
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nikola Boranijašević 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 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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 Mladost Lucani know it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Jovan Ćirić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mladost Lucani are no longer polite ones.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
35 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ognjen Bondžulić commits to Mladost Lucani for another 5 years.
Match10 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mladost Lucani can tell you which week it ends in.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nemanja Tadic 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Miloš Cvetković
“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
Something was said to John Mary and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nikola Boranijašević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Mladost Lucani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Bojić 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nemanja Petrović commits to Mladost Lucani for another 1 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
John Mary gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
94% of the income goes out in wages at Mladost Lucani
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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Uros Babic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 0‑3 beating by Crvena Zvezda was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Mladost Lucani
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad28 Sep 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Vukašin 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nedeljko Stojišić, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nemanja Petrović damages knee ligaments — 135 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Vukašin 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Radnicki 1923, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saša Stamenković, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Uros Babic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Miloš Cvetković
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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Crvena Zvezda top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Jovan Ćirić gets picked when it counts
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 Jovan Ćirić is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nemanja Petrović damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vukašin Jovanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nemanja Andrijanić, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Irfan Hadžić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mladost Lucani.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.72. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
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.” Uros Babic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nemanja Petrović
149 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mladost Lucani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.61 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nemanja Petrović reports back to Mladost Lucani with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 21 in, 3 out at Mladost Lucani
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Petar Bojić 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Jovan Ćirić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑2 to TSC, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Petar Bojić gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.50, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Radnicki Nis for Nemanja Žunić 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Vukašin 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Mladost Lucani asked and Botafogo 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Match29 Aug 2026
A goal on 91 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Mladost Lucani
12 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Cukaricki, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Irfan Hadžić takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Irfan Hadžić provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.67 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Mladost Lucani — 6.81
1 for Mihailo Oreščanin, marked 6.81, 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Tjaš Begić rejects the move
Mladost Lucani had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sampdoria, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vukašin 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Mladost Lucani asked and Radnicki Nis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: TSG Hoffenheim keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Cukaricki wanted more than $510.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Vukašin Jovanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napredak have kept their man, and Mladost Lucani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑1 to OFK Beograd, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Edin Ajdinović in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mladost Lucani are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nikola Andrić 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 dugout17 Aug 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 Uros Babic to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Jovan Ćirić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sporting CP keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$290.0K on the table at Cukaricki. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vukašin 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petar Rajkovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Uros Tadic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Strahinja Lukic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nenad Ilic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jovan Ćirić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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 7.47 for the rest of it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mladost Lucani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
Vojvodina left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Bojić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mihailo Oreščanin, and the manager let it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mladost Lucani, another week without a signature from Saša Stamenković.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Mladost Lucani 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.