The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFK Beograd people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Alčevski 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.
OFK Beograd 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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.
The phone has started ringing about Vanja Radulaški again, and this time the name on the line is Bukhara. OFK Beograd are listening politely and promising nothing.
Crvena Zvezda have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Babacar Mboup is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Uroš Stojanović has agreed terms with Novi Pazar for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Crvena Zvezda go through and OFK Beograd go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vojislav Jokić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Vojislav Jokić 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 Marko Alčevski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
30 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at OFK Beograd now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at OFK Beograd pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Marko Alčevski 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
“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 dugout22 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Marko Alčevski'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.
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 Miloš Pantović is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Todosijević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lincoln signs something — a contract at OFK Beograd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee OFK Beograd could ask drops and the wages Uroš Stojanović can ask rise.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nikola Todosijević 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Todosijević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Đorđe Šušnjar is on it.
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 OFK Beograd would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Vojislav Jokić 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 May 2028
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Alčevski 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.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
The dugout8 May 2028
Luka Đorđević is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vojislav Jokić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at OFK Beograd has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Saša Marković’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Tayrell Wouter is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at OFK Beograd has been clear about where Hameed Aderoju stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFK Beograd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ethan Hoard was one of the reasons people came, and $4.6M does not replace that by itself.
Nikola Todosijević 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 Apr 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lincoln signs something — a contract at OFK Beograd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
Nikola Todosijević 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 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.
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 Đorđe Šušnjar is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saša Marković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nikola Todosijević may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Marko Gobeljić’s negotiating for him
Marko Alčevski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
“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 OFK Beograd know it.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Luka Đorđević is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nikola Todosijević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
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 Tayrell Wouter is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at OFK Beograd, another week without a signature from Saša Marković.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Muhamed Bešić 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Alčevski 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.
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.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Milan Rodić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marin Dulić has his answer from OFK Beograd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lincoln signs something — a contract at OFK Beograd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Miloš Pantović obliged against Napredak. 4‑3 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is OFK Beograd.
Match15 Mar 2028
Miloš Pantović wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Miloš Pantović found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Napredak went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
Vojislav Jokić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether OFK Beograd can give him that is a question about the club, not 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 OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marko Gobeljić has his answer from OFK Beograd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at OFK Beograd, another week without a signature from Nemanja Stevanović.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hugo Alba did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between OFK Beograd and Napredak, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
Everybody at OFK Beograd 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I watch every OFK Beograd game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Debrecen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 1‑2 Aleksandar Ilic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ethan Hoard
Nikola Todosijević 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandar Ilic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
Radnicki Nis next, and one man in the OFK Beograd dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 OFK Beograd know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Gobeljić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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 Aleksandar Ilic left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 OFK Beograd, 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.” OFK Beograd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karcag waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at OFK Beograd 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.
Milan Rodić 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 deal with Crvena Zvezda is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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. Nyíregyháza have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
“I watch every OFK Beograd game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Debrecen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutMilan Rodić dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutMilan Rodić knocks on the manager's door
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Sparta Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
OFK Beograd asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Three points for OFK Beograd, 1‑0 the final word against Novi Pazar in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Gobeljić 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 OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Muhamed Bešić 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.
OFK Beograd asked and Philadelphia Union 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 watch every OFK Beograd game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Diosgyor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
OFK Beograd have made the call to Lokomotiv Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFK Beograd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Bekescsaba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vanja Radulaški. The answer from OFK Beograd has not changed — yet.
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.
Luka Đorđević, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Đorđević 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon OFK Beograd had all but put away. Radnicki 1923 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
Something was said to Luka Đorđević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aleksandar Ilic was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the OFK Beograd dressing room was either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFK Beograd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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 games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.61 on the card, and the OFK Beograd support went home talking about one name.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Milan Rodić
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 dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Aleksandar Ilic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 OFK Beograd know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at OFK Beograd.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Gobeljić 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ethan Hoard at his very best
The dugoutMilan Rodić dropped after a run of poor form
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every OFK Beograd game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Debrecen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Đorđe Šušnjar commits to OFK Beograd for another 2 years.
The dugout6 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Aleksandar Ilic to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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 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.
Marked 6.90 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Aleksandar Ilic on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Petar Jauković
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFK Beograd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nikola Todosijević 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 Saša Marković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 9, 19 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandar Ilic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Milan Rodić
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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 OFK Beograd, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. OFK Beograd told Đorđe Šušnjar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Gobeljić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Napredak in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nikola Todosijević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Muhamed Bešić 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.
“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 OFK Beograd, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandar Ilic after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Vojislav Jokić has come out of that comparison in the side, and OFK Beograd have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
The dugoutMuhamed Bešić has become a man the manager trusts
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Miloš Pantović provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dušan Žagar did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Gobeljić 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals in one match, Miloš Pantović on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of OFK Beograd and Cukaricki.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Muhamed Bešić 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandar Ilic after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. OFK Beograd told Vojislav Jokić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFK Beograd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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; OFK Beograd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandar Ilic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
In brief
The dugoutMilan Rodić dropped after a run of poor form
“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; OFK Beograd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Tayrell Wouter was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at OFK Beograd, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Gobeljić 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.
Jedinstvo Ub next, and one man in the OFK Beograd dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hugo Alba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Muhamed Bešić 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 OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Miloš Pantović provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nikola Todosijević 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for OFK Beograd. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
8 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
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.” Aleksandar Ilic, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Hameed Aderoju's mistake
The dugoutĐorđe Šušnjar has become a man the manager trusts
60Edition
The OFK Beograd Chronicle
20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondentTriumph
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Ethan Hoard takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ethan Hoard provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vojislav Jokić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFK Beograd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
OFK Beograd asked and Philadelphia Union said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ethan Hoard. 2‑1 against Spartak Subotica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Partizan; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
The bid was some way short and OFK Beograd did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at OFK Beograd 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Vojislav Jokić 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 7.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 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.
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shakhtar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Muhamed Bešić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grafičar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
OFK Beograd had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Basel, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
OFK Beograd asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 2‑1 win over Radnicki 1923, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Muhamed Bešić 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. Olympiacos have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 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.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Grafičar had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and OFK Beograd did not stop to explain themselves.
“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 OFK Beograd know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lincoln. 2‑1 against Grafičar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Strahinja Luković and OFK Beograd agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Filip Halabrin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Muhamed Bešić is on it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Borac Čačak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 OFK Beograd, 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.” OFK Beograd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at OFK Beograd
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miroslav Lazovic 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aleksandar Lazovic 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhamed Bešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Saša Marković 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.
OFK Beograd have made the call to Sparta Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Doxa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFK Beograd is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lincoln wants continental football; whether OFK Beograd can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The fee is $270.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Voždovac drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
OFK Beograd asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nemanja Stevanović 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Muhamed Bešić 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
OFK Beograd had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
27 games and 0 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Bešić 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Nemanja Žunić is in the works
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fee is $56.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Voždovac drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vanja Radulaški has, at OFK Beograd, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
At 36, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Muhamed Bešić is on it.
The name of Miljan Momčilović has come up in conversations OFK Beograd were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Jovan Šljivić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
Lincoln was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $4.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
OFK Beograd asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
OFK Beograd have made the call to CSKA Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
OFK Beograd and Spartak Subotica have settled on $4.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The name of Aleksej Vukičević has come up in conversations OFK Beograd were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$300.0K was the most the club would pay and OFK Vršac were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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.
9 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have shaken hands with Loznica; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
OFK Beograd asked and Napredak 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 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 OFK Beograd know it.
OFK Beograd offered $490.0K; Loznica said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
26 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at OFK Beograd now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; OFK Beograd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market31 May 2027
Vuk Draškić returns from a loan that taught him nothing
3 appearances and 1 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFK Beograd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OFK Beograd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jovan Šljivić 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Edmund Addo 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.
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 Yegor Prutsev has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Đorđević knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OFK Beograd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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 OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tayrell Wouter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Prutsev 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 OFK Beograd, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. OFK Beograd will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
In brief
The dugoutDušan Žagar knocks on the manager’s door
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Hugo Alba’s exile
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Athos Thawan has just signed for OFK Beograd, 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 OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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 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 Muhamed Bešić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alberto Simoni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFK Beograd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Edmund Addo 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 OFK Beograd 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 OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OFK Beograd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from San Diego Football Club for Ethan Hoard 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.
Jovan Šljivić 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 Apr 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Prutsev 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Edmund Addo 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marko Alčevski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I did not go to Radnik Surdulica to sit and watch. I want to come back to OFK Beograd and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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; OFK Beograd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFK Beograd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Yegor Prutsev 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ethan Hoard signs something — a contract at OFK Beograd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OFK Beograd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Edmund Addo 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.
“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 OFK Beograd, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at OFK Beograd, another week without a signature from Uroš Stojanović.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at OFK Beograd would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFK Beograd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The bid was some way short and OFK Beograd did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Edmund Addo takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edmund Addo provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 21 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yegor Prutsev 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.
“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 OFK Beograd know it.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
“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; OFK Beograd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jovan Šljivić 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Saša Marković will call it something else in private.
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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Aleksandar Ilic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the OFK Beograd dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Uroš Stojanović
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFK Beograd lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aleksandar Ilic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Radnicki Nis in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd 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 Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Edmund Addo'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.
The dugout15 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Aleksandar Ilic to a room that had heard them before.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Edmund Addo 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. Nyíregyháza have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ethan Hoard had OFK Beograd level again within 4 minutes, and Javor-Matis never got to play with a lead at all.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
1 for Edmund Addo, marked 7.32, 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
OFK Beograd 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.
“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; OFK Beograd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Voždovac paid $130.0K and OFK Beograd took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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. Dinamo Vranje have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nemanja Stevanović 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yacouba Silué. 2‑1 against Radnik Surdulica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OFK Beograd have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Radnicki Nis for Stefan Despotovski 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.
OFK Beograd had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Jovan Šljivić 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 Saša Marković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
OFK Beograd have made the call to Asteras. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFK Beograd people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Jovan Šljivić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The name of Aleksej Vukičević has come up in conversations OFK Beograd were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Stefan Despotovski has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yacouba Silué. 3‑1 against Zeleznicar Pancevo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Loznica have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aleksej Vukičević 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jovan Šljivić 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.
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.
4 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.
The fee is $100.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Spartak Subotica drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Jovan Šljivić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Edmund Addo 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. Vojvodina have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFK Beograd can pretend not to have heard.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for OFK Beograd is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
OFK Beograd asked and TSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jovan Šljivić 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 Dec 2026
Edmund Addo 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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 dugout28 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.” Aleksandar Ilic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Radnicki 1923? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Edmund Addo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OFK Beograd needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
0‑1 to Mladost Lucani, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Gobeljić 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 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 Muhamed Bešić is on it.
A brace, and Edmund Addo takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edmund Addo provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
He is 21 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Yegor Prutsev 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.
Jovan Šljivić 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Edmund Addo 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aleksandar Ilic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Jovan Šljivić has moved up it.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Novi Pazar defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edmund Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 11, 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 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 OFK Beograd 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 Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Prutsev, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Aleksandar Ilic to a room that had heard them before.
4.09 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Muhamed Bešić'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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spartak Subotica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Hugo Alba’s exile
16Edition
The OFK Beograd Chronicle
16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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.
Nikola Todosijević 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. OFK Beograd told Uroš Stojanović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFK Beograd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Napredak in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and OFK Beograd have no good answer.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miljan Momčilović and OFK Beograd agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edmund Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yegor Prutsev 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Miloš Pantović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
1‑4 to Vojvodina, 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.
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 7.49 for the rest of it.
Edmund Addo 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 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. 14 actions, 6.67, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Yegor Prutsev 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the OFK Beograd dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Edmund Addo 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.
Nikola Todosijević 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.
15 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.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Vojvodina next, and one man in the OFK Beograd dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleksej Vukičević is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Edmund Addo 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 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luka Đorđević’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OFK Beograd needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
Yegor Prutsev 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 OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at OFK Beograd 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFK Beograd. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at OFK Beograd the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
They sit in position 11 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Tayrell Wouter’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFK Beograd can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
At 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ethan Hoard. 3‑2 against Radnik Surdulica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edmund Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yegor Prutsev 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yegor Prutsev 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 8.36 — 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.
Edmund Addo 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.
Marko Gobeljić 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Miloš Pantović had OFK Beograd level again within 1 minutes, and IMT never got to play with a lead at all.
15 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
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 7.55 for the rest of it.
Yegor Prutsev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Gobeljić 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.
“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 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Miloš Pantović'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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 Sep 2026
Words at OFK Beograd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Addo 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 OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Aleksandar Ilic could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tayrell Wouter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Zeleznicar Pancevo next, and one man in the OFK Beograd dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Partizan is saying, and nobody at OFK Beograd is enjoying the guessing.
The deal that would have taken Vuk Draškić to FAP Priboj has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to OFK Beograd with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Edmund Addo 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. OFK Beograd will try again when the window opens; Napredak may not be selling by then.
Nemanja Stevanović 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yegor Prutsev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tayrell Wouter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Looking aheadOFK Beograd take on the side everybody is chasing
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OFK Beograd have done the hard part with Napredak, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $102.3K — a club that wants Pavle Mihajlović enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Prutsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FAP Priboj paid $4.0K and OFK Beograd took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 OFK Beograd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Vojvodina have accepted the money. What OFK Beograd do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nemanja Stevanović has, at OFK Beograd, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $207.0K — a club that wants Petar Jauković enough to be asked twice.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $207.0K — a club that wants Vladimir Rakić enough to be asked twice.
OFK Beograd have gone to Mačva Šabac with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Yegor Prutsev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mačva Šabac have kept their man, and OFK Beograd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Gobeljić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
OFK Beograd have gone to Cukaricki with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFK Beograd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
OFK Beograd asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dusan Lukic 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. Strahinja Ilic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luka Matic 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.
Yegor Prutsev 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 Edmund Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Miloš Pantović’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.