It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Vojvodina kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Partizan will be asked about the last half hour all week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Stefan Milić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mladost Lucani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Partizan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Partizan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Osman Bukari 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nikola Simić
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Partizan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Javor-Matis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Partizan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
6 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.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $840.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Vojvodina drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mateja Gašić has just signed for Partizan, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Frosinone is saying, and nobody at Partizan is enjoying the guessing.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Veljko Prodanić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bahia have kept their man, and Partizan 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 Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Čumić. 1‑0 against Radnik Surdulica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Frosinone this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Đorđe Nikolić has just signed for Partizan, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
In brief
SquadOsman Bukari falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Partizan asked and Juve Stabia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Will Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OFK Vršac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Partizan asked and Braga 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 everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Osman Bukari 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 phone has started ringing about Bogdan Kostić again, and this time the name on the line is Mladost Lucani. Partizan are listening politely and promising nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Partizan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Javor-Matis for Ibrahim Zubariu 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.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kosta Rakonić has just signed for Partizan, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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.
Partizan asked and Volos NPS said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kosta Rakonić 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Novi Pazar for Stefan Milić 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.
Partizan offered $110.0K; Mladost Lucani 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 Partizan 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Partizan asked and Bodo/Glimt 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Voždovac had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Toluca paid $7.3M and Partizan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
At 16 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Veljko Vukojević has, at Partizan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$18.8M was the most the club would pay and Gornik Zabrze 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Partizan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Smederevo 1924; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The phone has started ringing about Fernando Tapia again, and this time the name on the line is Toluca. Partizan are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Emmanuel Dzigbah has, at Partizan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wolverhampton have kept their man, and Partizan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cukaricki; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$4.9M on the table at Gornik Zabrze. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Partizan will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The offer went to Smederevo 1924 this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $850.0K — a club that wants Veljko Vukojević enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Partizan had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 19 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Zubariu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Leonard Owusu 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.
27 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Partizan now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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 Osman Bukari is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Milić 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Nikola Čumić has written the date down.
3 goals in 8 games at Napredak — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Partizan that is a harder question to answer.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mihajlo Petković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 May 2028
Osman Bukari 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 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Partizan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milan Vukotić signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 goals in 22 games at Nyíregyháza — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateja Milovanović signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Partizan would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Partizan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Osman Bukari 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.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Partizan would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Partizan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Marko Milošević is 37, with 325 appearances behind him, and Partizan will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nikola Čumić has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matija Malekinušić signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Leonard Owusu has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Fernando Tapia 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
Osman Bukari 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 Marko Janković is on it.
Milan Lazarević has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
69 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Partizan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milan Vukotić signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Partizan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Partizan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 goals in 22 games at Nyíregyháza — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
29 appearances at Ušće and the goals keep coming. Partizan are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Rakić 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateja Milovanović signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fernando Tapia 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
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 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 will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihajlo Petković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Partizan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matija Malekinušić signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Partizan, and 8 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Partizan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Partizan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
3 goals in 8 games at Napredak — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Partizan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marko Lekić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 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.
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 Felipe Augusto is on it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Rakić 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; Partizan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marko Janković 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 Osman Bukari 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateja Milovanović signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 1 on 69 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marko Janković 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Iddrisu Baba commits to Partizan for another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Zoran Alilović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Vladimir Rakić, 20, 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 20-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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
63 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match19 Feb 2028
Felipe Augusto wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Felipe Augusto found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Crvena Zvezda went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Partizan and a story that will outlast his contract.
Fernando Tapia 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Partizan did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Osman Bukari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateja Milovanović and Partizan agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Partizan asked and Mladost Lucani 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 Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Partizan can tell you which week it ends in.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dinamo Vranje waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Partizan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Novi Pazar have kept their man, and Partizan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Osman Bukari 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Marko Docić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marko Janković has come out of that comparison in the side, and Partizan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan 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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Richardson Denzell ended with $590.0K changing hands and Smederevo 1924 out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Richardson Denzell is living that version at Partizan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Osman Bukari 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.
Richardson Denzell 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Atalanta had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Partizan and Smederevo 1924 have settled on $590.0K. 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Haissem Hassan was one of the reasons people came, and $23.1M does not replace that by itself.
Partizan asked and Smederevo 1924 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan 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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Veljko Prodanić has, at Partizan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Marko Janković 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.
Partizan asked and Smederevo 1924 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Radnicki 1923 go through and Partizan 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Partizan have paid $15.1M for Felipe Augusto, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
Partizan and Voždovac have settled on $520.0K. 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 offer from Hearts of Oak for Leonard Owusu 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A brace, and Demba Seck takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Demba Seck provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Partizan will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
1 for Marko Janković, marked 7.84, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Osman Bukari 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Haissem Hassan. 3‑1 against Vojvodina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ibrahim Zubariu has his answer from Partizan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vojvodina next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Chances created: 14. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
1‑2 against Antwerp. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulmalik Mohammed will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Jedinstvo Ub spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Demba Seck 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nihad Mujakić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
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.
Marko Janković 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Osman Bukari 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.
TSC next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Janković provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Half the programme played, position 1, 38 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Something was said to Fernando Tapia and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout22 Nov 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.” Nenad Djuricic, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Partizan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fernando Tapia 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 Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
Something was said to Vanja Đorđević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Docić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑2 against LOSC Lille. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Fernando Tapia 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
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Osman Bukari. 2‑0 against Napredak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Osman Bukari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
1‑0 against Crvena Zvezda, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mihajlo Petković obliged against OFK Vršac. 6‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Partizan.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Partizan supporters have already started telling 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Radnicki 1923 will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Partizan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
0‑1 against LOSC Lille. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Nihad Mujakić delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nihad Mujakić scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateja Milovanović 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.
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.
Marko Janković 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Partizan, another week without a signature from Marko Milošević.
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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marko Docić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Partizan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Janković provided it, and the 8.51 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. Vanja Dragojević did not need any: 8.27, 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Osman Bukari 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.
Position 2, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Partizan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match25 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Partizan. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Fernando Tapia 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.63 — 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Tapia, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Demba Seck 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then IMT scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Nikola Čumić.
OFK Beograd will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Partizan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Osman Bukari 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.
Nihad Mujakić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Partizan.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Marko Janković was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Haissem Hassan
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kazincbarcika had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Partizan 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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.
Saša Zdjelar 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Partizan prefer.
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.
101 minutes played. Mihajlo Petković found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Kabel went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Osman Bukari 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 Partizan 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 matches without defeat, and then Vojvodina. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Osman Bukari 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.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fernando Tapia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Osman Bukari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Partizan. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Haissem Hassan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Osman Bukari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Milan Vukotić at his very best
6 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Partizan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Osman Bukari and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 goals in one match, Haissem Hassan on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Partizan and Jedinstvo Ub.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fernando Tapia 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 Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: AEL Larisa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dimitrije Janković. The answer from Partizan has not changed — yet.
In brief
Player ratingsNikola Čumić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
4 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.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Partizan
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 name of Abdulmalik Mohammed has come up in conversations Partizan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ušće waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Partizan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nihad Mujakić 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 name of Milan Lazarević has come up in conversations Partizan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdulmalik Mohammed and Partizan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jedinstvo Ub runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Haissem Hassan is on 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 Partizan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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.
Nihad Mujakić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It 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 was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdulmalik Mohammed reports back to Partizan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari 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. Nashville SC have kept their man, and Partizan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Borac Čačak have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Uroš Zdjelarić. The answer from Partizan has not changed — yet.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Demba Seck 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
10 new faces, and Partizan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Ibrahim Zubariu’s exile
The offer from Grazer AK for Fernando Tapia 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kabel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The chase for Danilo Knežević ended with $360.0K changing hands and Voždovac out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Danilo Knežević has just signed for Partizan, and for once the answer mattered.
Osman Bukari 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.
Partizan asked and LA Galaxy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iddrisu Baba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Partizan know which stage they are at.
Nobody at Partizan 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Partizan and Voždovac have settled on $360.0K. 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $980.0K has been paid because Fernando Tapia is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Voždovac is saying, and nobody at Partizan is enjoying the guessing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Živković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vladimir Rakić has, at Partizan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Osman Bukari was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $14.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have shaken hands with Widzew Łódź; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Partizan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal that would have taken Nikola Simić to Javor-Matis has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Partizan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Partizan have done the hard part with Club America, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$390.0K on the table at Voždovac. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Partizan have had the benefit of it.
Bogdan Kostić 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Milić 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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Partizan 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 Nemanja Trifunović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and TSC spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Partizan will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Kojzek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Haissem Hassan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Milan Vukotić
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Haissem Hassan is on it.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Milan Vukotić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Živković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Kojzek 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 Demba Seck is on it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Partizan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matija Malekinušić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Erik Kojzek 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 Lekić 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.
Nobody at Partizan 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 words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mateja Milovanović and Partizan agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Partizan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Milan Aleksić has written the date down.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Partizan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikola Čumić and Partizan agree another 5 years.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Kojzek 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 Partizan 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Partizan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastian Polter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Živković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milan Vukotić and Partizan agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Kojzek 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.
Something was said to Haissem Hassan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Sebastian Polter 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 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.
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.
Stefan Mitrović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bibars Natcho has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Milan Vukotić is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Partizan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Lekić 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 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.
3 goals in 5 games at Kabel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 goals in 28 games at Novi Pazar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Partizan the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Milan Vukotić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadMilan Vukotić is the talk of the training ground
A 2‑0 win over Zeleznicar Pancevo, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Erik Kojzek 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Kojzek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Partizan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Partizan will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Marko Lekić 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Partizan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Partizan 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Partizan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bibars Natcho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Lekić 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.
Zeleznicar Pancevo made Partizan work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marko Janković was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Erik Kojzek will call it something else in private.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nenad Djuricic could afford to be generous.
“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 Partizan know it.
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 dugout1 Mar 2027
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 Nenad Djuricic left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 shut-outs in 18 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Miloš Krunić has been having a lot of them.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 Nenad Djuricic left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marko Docić will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
Position 3, 54 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Demba Seck 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.
7 goals in one match, Demba Seck on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Partizan and Radnicki 1923.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sinisa Kostic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vanja Dragojević had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match6 Feb 2027
Milan Vukotić wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Milan Vukotić found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mladost Lucani went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and El-Kanemi Warriors waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Partizan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Demba Seck reports back to Partizan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Mladost Lucani made Partizan work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Haissem Hassan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
SquadWords at Partizan training over how hard people work
27Edition
The Partizan Courier
1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Partizan close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 5 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.
Add another name to the list: El-Kanemi Warriors have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdulmalik Mohammed. The answer from Partizan has not changed — yet.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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 Nenad Djuricic left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Haissem Hassan wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Haissem Hassan found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Novi Pazar went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Partizan.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
Miloš Krunić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 18 appearances at Iraklis. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tekstilac Odžaci waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Partizan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nemanja Trifunović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Haissem Hassan has, at Partizan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
4 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.
The fee is $670.0K, 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vanja Dragojević had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Partizan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Bogdan Kostić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $405.0K — a club that wants Andrej Todoroski enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Bloemfontein Celtic this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Partizan have had the benefit of it.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The name of Vanja Dragojević has come up in conversations Partizan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Partizan have gone to Spartak Subotica 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.
Partizan asked and Cukaricki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Vojvodina left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Iddrisu Baba 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.” Nenad Djuricic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
15 appearances at Iraklis and the goals have stopped going in. Partizan lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
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 Demba Seck is on it.
A 2‑0 win over Cukaricki, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iddrisu Baba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nenad Djuricic on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
0‑3. Feyenoord play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Matija Malekinušić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every 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 Marko Janković is on it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nenad Djuricic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A 1‑0 win over Radnik Surdulica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iddrisu Baba 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nikola Čumić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nenad Djuricic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
1‑0 against CSKA 1948, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Demba Seck was at the centre of the description.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Partizan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vanja Dragojević did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Marko Janković’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Partizan.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Iddrisu Baba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marko Janković was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Half the programme played, position 2, 29 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Something was said to Marko Janković and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bibars Natcho 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Something was said to Milan Aleksić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Milan Aleksić
The dugoutStefan Mitrović has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bibars Natcho 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 Iddrisu Baba 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 Marko Janković is on it.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
Miloš Krunić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
6 clean sheets from 9 appearances at Iraklis. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milan Vukotić signs something — a contract at Partizan 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. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑2 against Shakhtar, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Iddrisu Baba 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.
Beaten 1‑3 by Crvena Zvezda in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Mladost Lucani will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bogdan Kostić did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Marko Janković, marked 7.91, 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 6.81 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
0‑0 against Shakhtar, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Partizan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Partizan and Radnicki 1923 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Three points for Partizan, 4‑2 the final word against Radnicki 1923 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Iddrisu Baba 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.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Erik Kojzek. 3‑1 against Mladost Lucani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Iddrisu Baba 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.
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Partizan.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nenad Djuricic, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateja Milovanović signs something — a contract at Partizan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑1 against Feyenoord. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Partizan 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Nenad Djuricic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bibars Natcho 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.
11 combined actions and 7.43. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iddrisu Baba 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nenad Djuricic after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.