Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Radomlje they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Enej Klampfer 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanja Pelko 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Radomlje than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Radomlje could ask drops and the wages Enej Klampfer can ask rise.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Vrbančić 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Luka Vrbančić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Radomlje, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Radomlje they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Patrik Klančir 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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“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 Radomlje, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Radomlje they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Luka Vrbančić 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Jure Balkovec leaves with $16.9K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
In brief
The dugoutA fresh start for Sven Karič under the new man
The dugoutVanja Pelko knocks on the manager’s door
MarketThe clock does Enej Klampfer’s negotiating for him
35Edition
The Radomlje Courier
29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces29 Mar 2027
The mood at Radomlje has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Sven Karič 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Karel Belžík is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Luka Vrbančić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Radomlje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Stanislav Krapukhin 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Enej Klampfer is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Sven Karič was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Mihael Žaper falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Radomlje, and 0 appearances in 9 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Enej Klampfer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Radomlje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Vrbančić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Patrik Klančir 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.
7 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 Radomlje 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Radomlje can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Radomlje, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Radomlje is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Vrbančić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Patrik Klančir and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Sven Karič's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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 Enej Klampfer is on it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Radomlje is running low.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radomlje can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Radomlje now know that too.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Sven Karič's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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 Stanislav Krapukhin is on it.
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Vrbančić 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Radomlje game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Celje 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 Jaša Martinčič is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Radomlje 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Luka Vrbančić 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.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Radomlje 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Radomlje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Radomlje would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matej Dvoršak signs something — a contract at Radomlje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaša Jelen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Radomlje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sven Karič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Radomlje know it, and so does everybody who watches 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 Enej Klampfer 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 Radomlje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at Radomlje has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The offer from NK Domzale for Enej Klampfer 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.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Radomlje close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 3 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mark Tomšič has just signed for Radomlje, and for once the answer mattered.
Sven Karič and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matej Dvoršak commits to Radomlje for another 4 years.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Luka Vrbančić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bilje waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Radomlje is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Samo Pridgar has gone, the accounts have $290.0K 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.
Everything agreed with Hajduk Split, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Bravo paid $290.0K and Radomlje took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Bravo pay $150.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanja Pelko 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Enej Klampfer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Radomlje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Radomlje will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rudar Velenje have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Patrik Klančir 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.
NK Celje go through and Radomlje go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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 Radomlje, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stanislav Krapukhin provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Enej Klampfer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Enej Klampfer and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The mood at Radomlje has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jayden Wareham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rudar Velenje have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Radomlje have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Mihael Žaper 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Radomlje, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Jaša Martinčič is on 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Vanja Pelko 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vanja Pelko signs something — a contract at Radomlje or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Enej Klampfer 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.
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.
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.
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 Radomlje that is a harder question to answer.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Radomlje will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vanja Pelko commits to Radomlje for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mihael Žaper 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samo Pridgar, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Jure Balkovec 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Radomlje has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Olimpija Ljubljana had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Radomlje will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Patrik Klančir 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. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jure Balkovec to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Radomlje pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Radomlje will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radomlje 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 Mihael Žaper was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Patrik Klančir 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.
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 Matej Dvoršak is on it.
Aluminij next, and one man in the Radomlje dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Mihael Žaper 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 Vanja Pelko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 93, against Bravo, 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.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Radomlje will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Jaša Jelen, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 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.
Mihael Žaper was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Radomlje has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mihael Žaper 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Radomlje 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jure Balkovec after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Karel Belžík 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.
Position 8 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7.54, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihael Žaper was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Enej Klampfer 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jure Balkovec after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutVanja Pelko knocks on the manager’s door
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Enej Klampfer is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
NK Domzale next, and one man in the Radomlje dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samo Pridgar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Divine Igwe Ikenna has written the date down.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Florijan Mežnar is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. NK Maribor had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Position 7, 9 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Tadej Zonta
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tadej Zonta has come out of that comparison in the side, and Radomlje have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
A brace, and Tadej Zonta takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tadej Zonta provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Radomlje has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mihael Žaper 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.
Patrik Klančir 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 goal on 89 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Radomlje 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 finished 2‑2, 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.” Jure Balkovec chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
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 dugout21 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 Jure Balkovec to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mura in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CSKA Moscow is saying, and nobody at Radomlje is enjoying the guessing.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrik Klančir commits to Radomlje for another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Piast have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jure Balkovec after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Radomlje will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Radomlje close the window on a squad of their own making
18 in and 7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mihael Žaper falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leganés have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Radomlje will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Radomlje 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.
Radomlje have made the call to CSKA Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Borna Graonić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
$1.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Hajduk Split, the club has $1.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 Radomlje, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radomlje have done the hard part with Dinamo Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Southampton keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wycombe Wanderers have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Florijan Mežnar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that 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 Radomlje, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Žan Žaler scored, was marked 7.49, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Leganés keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jan Grgas Grando is living that version at Radomlje, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihael Žaper 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. Piast have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sparta Prague have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tadej Zonta is living that version at Radomlje, and it tends to show in the first month.
The shirt still fits. Nik Fortuna is back at Radomlje, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Celje have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jure Ilicic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kevin Sesko 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tomas Elsnik 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.
Patrik Klančir 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.
Luka Kušić, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 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.
The offer from Orijent 1919 for Matej Mamić 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dejan Kantužer and Radomlje agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Žaper 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Florijan Mežnar 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Radomlje 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.