128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radnik Krizevci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Patrik Marić scored in the 85th minute, Hrvatski Dragovoljac had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Radnik Krizevci took the lot.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A brace, and Patrik Marić takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Marić provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radnik Krizevci have done the hard part with HNK Gorica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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 had been thinking. Andrej Golub 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.
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radnik Krizevci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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 David Martić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 88, against Djakovo Croatia, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Antonio Marić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
142 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Radnik Krizevci lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Krizevci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
David Martić 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.
149 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radnik Krizevci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Marić did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Filip Bosak and Radnik Krizevci agree another 3 years.
At 19 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.
156 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radnik Krizevci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Junior Bita 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 had been thinking. David Martić 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.” Matej Bilic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Radnik Krizevci, another week without a signature from Andro Marušić.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Matković knocks on the manager’s door
163 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radnik Krizevci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Jovan Trač, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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 had been thinking. Andrej Golub 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 18 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.
Half the programme played, position 8, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrej Golub was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matej Bilic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Radnik Krizevci 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Krizevci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
David Martić 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.
Something was said to Patrick Pejić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 David Martić 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 Radnik Krizevci have no good answer.
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Filip Grabovac and Radnik Krizevci agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrej Golub 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrik Marić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radnik Krizevci told Jovan Trač something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Matej Bilic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Junior Bita 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radnik Krizevci told Junior Bita something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Patrik Majdandžić has come out of that comparison in the side, and Radnik Krizevci have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Junior Bita did not need any: 7.68, 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 Radnik Krizevci 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 David Martić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Radnik Krizevci had all but put away. Varteks will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Something was said to Ivan Katić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
23 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.
HNK Gorica go through and Radnik Krizevci go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
1 for Karlo Taslak, marked 7.17, 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Stanislav Kritsyuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Solin in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Ivan Katić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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 had been thinking. David Martić 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 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Everybody at Radnik Krizevci saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Katić 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 had been thinking. Andro Marušić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Bita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
23 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Trnje in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑3 to Uskok, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Junior Bita and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnik Surdulica have kept their man, and Radnik Krizevci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
David Martić 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Matej Bilic to a room that had heard them before.
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Radnik Krizevci will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 36 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with Orijent 1919, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ivan Katić 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 had been thinking. Andro Marušić 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 on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Radnik Krizevci will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Toni Vidović is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Toni Vidović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Radnik Krizevci needing him to play as if none of it matters.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
David Martić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wadi Degla have kept their man, and Radnik Krizevci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Junior Bita. 2‑0 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Radnik Krizevci know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Niko Željković did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Everything agreed with Lokomotiva Zagreb, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Krizevci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dugopolje have kept their man, and Radnik Krizevci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 18 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.
A 1‑0 win over Djakovo Croatia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Radnik Krizevci will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Everything agreed with HNK Gorica, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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.
Radnik Krizevci asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
1‑2 to Bjelovar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Andro Marušić 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Radnik Krizevci will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Radnik Krizevci will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Radnik Krizevci, another week without a signature from Antonio Marić.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Transfer targetsA loan move for Junior Bita is in the works
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Toni Vidović has, at Radnik Krizevci, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal with Rudes 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mate Pavlović and Radnik Krizevci agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario Grbic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mato Livaja 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Milan Pasalic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Josip Boric is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Mihael Mladen wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Mihael Mladen found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dugo Selo went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mihael Mladen. 3‑2 against Dugo Selo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volga have kept their man, and Radnik Krizevci go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. David Petek 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Barišić and Radnik Krizevci agree another 3 years.
Fabijan Šašek 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.
Radnik Krizevci have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Radnik Krizevci have made the call to Rudes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ante Bašić is in the works
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadWords at Radnik Krizevci training over how hard people work