The offer from NK Maribor for Luka Pihler 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.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There were 6 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nafta 1903 close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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 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.
Nafta 1903 asked and Rotor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nafta 1903 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 2, 46 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nafta 1903 have done the hard part with Olympic Charleroi, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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. GKS Tychy have kept their man, and Nafta 1903 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 159% of the Nafta 1903 income
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Rok Pirtovšek
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nafta 1903 asked and Slask said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nafta 1903 can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nafta 1903 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 21 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.
Lucas Erjavšek 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba 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.
“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 Nafta 1903, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nafta 1903 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Nafta 1903 had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nafta 1903 have done the hard part with Olimpija Ljubljana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Position 3, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Isaac Tshipamba 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 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.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Nafta 1903 had all but put away. Jadran Dekani will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tibor Gorenc Stankovič 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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Josip Marinić'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.
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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Josip Marinić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A performance of 8.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Josip Marinić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Isaac Tshipamba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Adrović and Nafta 1903 agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 dugout14 Dec 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.” Jure Stojanovic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Oliver Kregar had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and NK Krka were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Josip Marinić delivers — 7.66
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Josip Marinić scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Balázs Bakti is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Amadej Maroša
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Amadej Maroša has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nafta 1903 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matic Dimič is living that version at Nafta 1903, and it tends to show in the first month.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Three points for Nafta 1903, 2‑1 the final word against Ilirija 1911 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
231% of the income goes out in wages at Nafta 1903
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.
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Josip Marinić 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 dugout23 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 0‑1 Jure Stojanovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Anis Jašaragić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nafta 1903 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Rok Pirtovšek 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 Tibor Gorenc Stankovič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Amadej Maroša has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Josip Marinić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nafta 1903 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nafta 1903, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
14 goals and a season average of 7.31 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
7 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.
0‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Josip Marinić delivers — 7.78
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Josip Marinić scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Oliver Kregar 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.
1‑2 to Jesenice, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
231% of the income goes out in wages at Nafta 1903
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Nafta 1903, 1‑0 the final word against Rudar Velenje in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Amadej Maroša was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tibor Gorenc Stankovič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jure Stojanovic could afford to be generous.
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.
Peter Cverle 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rene Kogoi commits to Nafta 1903 for another 4 years.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Jure Stojanovic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Rudar Velenje.
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 Anis Jašaragić is on it.
The dugoutPeter Cverle knocks on the manager’s door
11Edition
The Nafta 1903 Courier
12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba 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.
10 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.
Nobody at Nafta 1903 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amadej Maroša’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nafta 1903 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nafta 1903 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nazar Domchak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against ND Gorica; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The goal that put ND Gorica ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Nafta 1903 equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Nafta 1903 have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
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.
Dravinja will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nafta 1903 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Marked 9.92. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nafta 1903.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Tshipamba 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.
Peter Cverle 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Nafta 1903 and NK Krsko in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Črt Rotar has, at Nafta 1903, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Isaac Tshipamba 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Petar Janza 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tibor Gorenc Stankovič 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.
10 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nafta 1903 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Nafta 1903 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.
The deal that would have taken Domen Brumec to NK Domzale has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Nafta 1903 with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mark Šerbec is living that version at Nafta 1903, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Tshipamba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Nafta 1903 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at ND Gorica, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Nafta 1903 have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nafta 1903 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NK Krka had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Nafta 1903, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sergej Lazarević has just signed for Nafta 1903, and for once the answer mattered.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The name of Domen Brumec has come up in conversations Nafta 1903 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nafta 1903, another week without a signature from Oliver Kregar.
The offer from Bistrica for Michael Ogwuche 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bravo is saying, and nobody at Nafta 1903 is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Nafta 1903 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Kregar 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.
Peter Cverle 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andraz Janza 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vid Birsa 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petar Elsnik is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Tabor Sežana scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Nafta 1903 know which stage they are at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nafta 1903 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Amadej Maroša’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Josip Dabić is 20, and Nafta 1903 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Nafta 1903 know which stage they are at.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nafta 1903 are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.