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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at NK Krka would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
Žan Leban was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tilen Mlakar has his answer from NK Krka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 184% of everything NK Krka earn
“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 The request is on a desk at NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tilen Mlakar 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Krka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Isaac Tshipamba has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. NK Krka know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Luka Čadež: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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 NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Víctor Mañón will call it something else in private.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Andraž Lipec was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against NK Krsko? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
0‑3 to NK Maribor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
Domen Žur 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.
Marked 9.50 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the NK Krka squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 9 and 8 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.
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.
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 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.
“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 NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 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.
Andraž Lipec 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niko Domjanić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Tilen Mlakar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Rudar Velenje? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Niko Domjanić could not do
“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 NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $120.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. NK Domzale drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Rudar Velenje for Jaša Hribar 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.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Tilen Mlakar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luka Čadež knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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 NK Krka, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Andraž Lipec 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.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at NK Krka would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
1‑4 to Olimpija Ljubljana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Andraž Lipec 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at NK Krka, another week without a signature from Tilen Kovačić.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at NK Krka has been clear about where Dominik Iskrić stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Perica Guskić has his answer from NK Krka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.