Patrik Klančir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Bine Anželj 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 Jakob Kobal is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Radomlje, another week without a signature from Dejan Kantužer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radomlje can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Radomlje heard it as anything else.
The offer went to Koper 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.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Klančir 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.
Dominik Ivkič 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Jan Janza 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luka Kušić was one of the reasons people came, and $5.1M does not replace that by itself.
The deal with Triglav Kranj 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.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Koper 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrik Klančir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Radomlje asked and Bravo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Amadej Marinič 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 Vanja Pelko is on it.
In brief
The dugoutJakob Kobal knocks on the manager’s door
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radomlje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 offer went to Koper 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bine Anželj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jul 2028
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.
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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radomlje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radomlje can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nafta 1903 have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Kantužer 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.
Radomlje have made the call to Nafta 1903. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
“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 offer went to Koper 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.
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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Borna Graonić 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Radomlje people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Radomlje asked and ND Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Borna Graonić 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.
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. Radomlje will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Brinje Grosuplje 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.
In brief
The dugoutVanja Pelko has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
“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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Radomlje hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Radomlje will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
$130.0K on the table at Koper. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Radomlje asked and Rudar Velenje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Borna Graonić 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.
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radomlje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bravo have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borna Graonić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Radomlje has been clear about where Jaša Jelen stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jaša Jelen
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radomlje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Radomlje had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Matej Dvoršak and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bine Anželj 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.
30 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Radomlje now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Karel Belžík is on it.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radomlje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Matej Dvoršak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
Borna Graonić 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.
Squad22 May 2028
5 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Krušelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Radomlje is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
“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.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Radomlje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
57 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Krušelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Milan Knobloch is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“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.
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 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 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 city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Radomlje would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” NK Krsko suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Radomlje, and the summer will force it.
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Daniel Pavlev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Filip Krušelj 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.
Arian Mršulja was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at 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.
“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.
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Filip Krušelj 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.
8 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.
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 Vanja Pelko is on it.
57 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Matej Dvoršak was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Svit Sešlar is on it.
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Oungialidis 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakob Kobal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Radomlje know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Matej Dvoršak 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Filip Krušelj 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 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.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radomlje told Daniel Pavlev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
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.
“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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Svit Sešlar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Borna Graonić 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radomlje told Jakob Kobal something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
57 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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.
Patrik Klančir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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 happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandros Paschalidis and Radomlje agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 Svit Sešlar is on it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 57 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nik Fortuna and Radomlje agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Dravinja spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Kušić 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Borna Graonić 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timi Kurtovic on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Feb 2028
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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.
9 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 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 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.
Matej Dvoršak 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 deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Radomlje will try again when the window opens; Bravo may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borna Graonić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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 Timi Kurtovic to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Patrik Klančir's mistake
The dugoutSvit Sešlar has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have shaken hands with Bravo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Radomlje until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Radomlje know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody 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 Radomlje this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A brace, and Vanja Pelko takes the afternoon — 9.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vanja Pelko provided it, and the 9.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
13 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Filip Krušelj 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrik Klančir 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
Brinje Grosuplje wanted more than $150.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Filip Krušelj 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radomlje have done the hard part with Mura, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Radomlje offered $130.0K; Koper 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Arian Mršulja has, at Radomlje, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Radomlje asked and Olimpija Ljubljana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Dominik Ivkič 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 offer went to Koper 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dominik Ivkič and Radomlje agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Filip Krušelj 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. NK Krka have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Svit Sešlar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Radomlje had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Dominik Ivkič is a Radomlje player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Matej Dvoršak 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 phone has started ringing about Karel Belžík again, and this time the name on the line is Ilirija 1911. Radomlje are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Krušelj 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. Mura have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Borna Graonić 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 needed Svit Sešlar to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Brinje Grosuplje, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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.” Timi Kurtovic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Ilirija 1911 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Filip Krušelj 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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Timi Kurtovic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Radomlje dressing room was either.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Liam Matoh Horvat 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Svit Sešlar. 1‑0 against Rudar Velenje, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timi Kurtovic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Luka Kušić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Radomlje know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Matej Dvoršak 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrik Klančir 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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Vanja Pelko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.67. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Krušelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Beltinci; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Jadran Dekani 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Kušić did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Filip Krušelj 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Kušić 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.
Matej Dvoršak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Borna Graonić 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 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nafta 1903 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Svit Sešlar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vanja Pelko is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timi Kurtovic on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
3‑0, and Vanja Pelko took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Radomlje tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A brace, and Vanja Pelko takes the afternoon — 9.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vanja Pelko provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Kušić did not need any: 8.48, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Patrik Klančir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Filip Krušelj 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Svit Sešlar at his very best
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Vanja Pelko
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Kušić did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Kušić 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 8.73 — 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Borna Graonić 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Krušelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dravinja will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Israel Boatwright has pre-agreed a move to Radomlje, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Borna Graonić 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.
Dimitris Oungialidis 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Radomlje will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bistrica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Radomlje did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Luka Kušić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Patrik Klančir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Bor Ceferin 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.
Triglav Kranj will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Radomlje were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Radomlje will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Borna Graonić 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.
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.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Radomlje is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Tabor Sežana; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Timi Kurtovic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borna Graonić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He is going to NK Maribor, the club has $1.2M 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Krušelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Svit Sešlar
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Svit Sešlar has come out of that comparison in the side, and Radomlje have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Nik Fortuna is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Svit Sešlar’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Radomlje needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Radomlje have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Rudar Velenje had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
7.92, 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.
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.
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.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nik Fortuna obliged against Beltinci. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Radomlje.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vanja Pelko. 2‑1 against Brinje Grosuplje, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Nik Fortuna at his very best
SquadWords at Radomlje training over how hard people work
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.
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Krušelj 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. Koper have kept their man, and Radomlje 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. Jakob Kobal 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.
Dimitris Oungialidis 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Radomlje has been clear about where Jaša Jelen stands, which is more than many ever get.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Radomlje people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Matej Dvoršak 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.” Stanislav Krapukhin and Radomlje agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Filip Krušelj 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.
5 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.
Jadran Dekani will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Radomlje were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Rudar Velenje had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jadran Dekani were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stanislav Krapukhin and Radomlje agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rubin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Carrarese have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radomlje have done the hard part with Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 Jul 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.
Radomlje asked and Ravenna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Divine Igwe Ikenna’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Radomlje needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Koper have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benjamin Stojanovic 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. Jure Ilicic 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. Petar Oblak 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. Andraz Sikosek 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Borna Graonić 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.
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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$53.0K settles it between the clubs for Bor Ceferin
Olimpija Ljubljana have accepted the money. What Radomlje do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $133.5K — a club that wants Blaž Petriško enough to be asked twice.
$120.0K on the table at Aluminij. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Primorje 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
6 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.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $144.6K — a club that wants Jon Ficko enough to be asked twice.
“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 Radomlje know it.
$130.0K on the table at Primorje. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Radomlje have gone to Olimpija Ljubljana 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.
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.
$60.0K was the most the club would pay and NK Krka 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $66.8K — a club that wants Tai Meze enough to be asked twice.
$60.0K on the table at NK Krka. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Radomlje offered $100.0K; ND Gorica 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.
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.
“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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Radomlje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borna Graonić 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Radomlje have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Radomlje have gone to Olimpija Ljubljana 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Dino Kojić enough to be asked twice.
Radomlje offered $260.0K; ND Gorica 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.
Olimpija Ljubljana paid $230.0K 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.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Radomlje spend $3.9M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.9M for Svit Sešlar, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad14 Jun 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. Beltinci have kept their man, and Radomlje go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olimpija Ljubljana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Radomlje is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radomlje have done the hard part with NK Celje, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bilje have accepted the money. What Radomlje do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from ND Gorica for Jaša Martinčič 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.
Squad7 Jun 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.
Radomlje asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Position 10 and 11 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radomlje can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad31 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.
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.
24 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stelios Konstantinou and Radomlje agree another 3 years.
“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.
1 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.
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.
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.
Divine Igwe Ikenna has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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.” Patrik Klančir commits to Radomlje for another 4 years.
Squad17 May 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.
In brief
The dugoutEnej Klampfer knocks on the manager's door
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.
Sven Karič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 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.
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.