The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Planka did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
David Planka 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Prostějov, another week without a signature from Jan Sedlák.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. David Planka is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Banik Ostrava B will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Prostějov were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
David Planka 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Matoušek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 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.” Tomas Masopust, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Prostějov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Prostějov they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
David Planka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tomas Masopust was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Prostějov dressing room was either.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Prostějov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
David Planka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad12 Oct 2026
19 new faces, and Prostějov 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.
In brief
The dugoutJakub Matoušek has become a man the manager trusts
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Prostějov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Prostějov know it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Prostějov and Slavia Prague B, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Prostějov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Planka 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.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Juraj Chvátal 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Tomas Masopust to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Stejskal 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.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Prostějov they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Planka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Michal Kroupa 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 words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Prostějov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Prostějov, another week without a signature from Jan Sedlák.
The dugout14 Sep 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 Tomas Masopust left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
SquadWords at Prostějov training over how hard people work
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 28 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Prostějov asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Prostějov 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 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.
He is 19, and nobody at Prostějov signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Sedlák trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Prostějov
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Prostějov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The offer from Karviná for Jakub Matoušek was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at MSK Zilina is saying, and nobody at Prostějov is enjoying the guessing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Emir Karalić has agreed terms with Chrudim for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Jan Stejskal 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.
$24.0K was the most the club would pay and Jihlava 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.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Prostějov they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jan Stejskal 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
Prostějov spend $1.9M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.9M for David Planka, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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 offer went to Banik Ostrava 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.
Prostějov offered $2.2M; Banik Ostrava 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martin Hlaváč has just signed for Prostějov, and for once the answer mattered.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $25.0K — a club that wants Michal Záhradník 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 Prostějov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Jihlava 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.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juraj Chvátal is living that version at Prostějov, and it tends to show in the first month.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.4M — a club that wants Filip Kubala enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Zbrojovka Brno 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.
Juraj Chvátal 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 shirt still fits. Vladimír Neuman is back at Prostějov, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Prostějov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Prostějov have gone to Banik Ostrava 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.
Prostějov asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Prostějov know which stage they are at.