Ishaq Kayode has gone, the accounts have $1.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at NK Maribor is saying, and nobody at Primorje is enjoying the guessing.
Jadran Dekani paid $1.3M and Primorje took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Add another name to the list: Bravo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mark Gulič. The answer from Primorje has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Žan Bešir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Haris Dedić 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Primorje, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with NK Maribor is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Žan Bešir 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 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Primorje.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Primorje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Strajnar is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Primorje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Primorje had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Koper have kept their man, and Primorje go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Primorje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at Primorje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Žan Bešir 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 Primorje 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. Primorje know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Urban Trobec 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 Žan Bešir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Primorje told Mark Strajnar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Primorje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Primorje will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Primorje. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Primorje that is a harder question to answer.
Urban Trobec was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Primorje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Haris Kadrić has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Nobody at Primorje is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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.
Position 4 on 26 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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 Urban Trobec has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Primorje have no good answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Primorje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Primorje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Žan Bešir 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Primorje pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Primorje can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Strajnar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Primorje 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gregor Handanovic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Macky Bagnack 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Haris Kadrić. 3‑2 against NK Maribor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Primorje needed to.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Gregor Handanovic, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Primorje told Tilen Klemenčič something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Urban Trobec was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Primorje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Žan Bešir 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.
NK Maribor next, and one man in the Primorje dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Ishaq Kayode is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sodiq Ismaila signs something — a contract at Primorje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Mark Gulič has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Primorje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mark Strajnar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Miha Dobnikar is on it.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 Urban Trobec is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gregor Handanovic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Žan Bešir 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.
Mark Gulič was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gregor Handanovic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Aluminij.
Žan Bešir 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.
Haris Kadrić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Koper, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mark Strajnar falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Haris Dedić's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bravo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Mark Strajnar
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Primorje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Koper 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.
6 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Koper in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Primorje that is a harder question to answer.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Haris Kadrić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Primorje escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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 Primorje know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Žan Bešir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 2, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 102% of everything Primorje earn
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.
Haris Dedić 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 Mark Strajnar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Primorje are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gregor Handanovic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Haris Dedić 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 — 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.
NK Domzale next, and one man in the Primorje dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Primorje asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Three points for Primorje, 1‑0 the final word against Mura in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Primorje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mark Strajnar 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 offer from Bilje for Mark Strajnar 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal that would have taken Dušan Ignjatović to NK Domzale has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Primorje with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Piast have kept their man, and Primorje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mark Strajnar 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 Primorje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Primorje had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Udinese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer from Minsk for Urban Trobec 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jablonec have kept their man, and Primorje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Haris Dedić 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Haris Kadrić scored in the 88th minute, Olimpija Ljubljana had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Primorje took the lot.
“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 Primorje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Domzale have kept their man, and Primorje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Udinese is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Haris Dedić 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
$1.5M on the table at NK Domzale. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Gzira United for Sodiq Ismaila 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Jan Elsnik enough to be asked twice.
$700.0K was the most the club would pay and NK Celje 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.
Primorje asked and Utrecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Primorje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Urban Trobec has come up in conversations Primorje were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alexander Stožinić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer went to NK Celje 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 $750.9K — a club that wants Luka Kolar enough to be asked twice.
The deal that would have taken Daniel Pavlev to Jadran Dekani has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Primorje with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Haris Dedić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nejc Skubic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Koper the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Primorje will enjoy reviewing.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tim Kruljac has, at Primorje, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Add another name to the list: Ilirija 1911 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexander Stožinić. The answer from Primorje has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haris Dedić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Primorje can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.