The offer from Fehervar for Samuele Vignato 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.
Ante Oreč 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 Justas Lasickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niko Janković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 2, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around HNK Rijeka people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Rijeka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The name of Samuele Vignato has come up in conversations HNK Rijeka were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Dejan Petrovič 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 Tiago Dantas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lewis Morgan 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tiago Dantas 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.
HNK Rijeka have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
9 goals in 21 games at Omonoia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at HNK Rijeka updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HNK Rijeka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from ND Gorica for Marko Aščić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The chase for Ivan Filipović ended with $390.0K changing hands and Dinamo Zagreb out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: 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 HNK Rijeka 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 Justas Lasickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation HNK Rijeka are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HNK Rijeka. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
HNK Gorica go through and HNK Rijeka go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Zagreb; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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 Tiago Dantas 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. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Rijeka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and HNK Rijeka have had the benefit of it.
The offer from HNK Gorica for Moreno Živković 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.
Everything agreed with Istra 1961, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleksa Todorović is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Dejan Petrovič and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slaven Belupo have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Hajduk Split have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Ćubelić. The answer from HNK Rijeka has not changed — yet.
Dejan Petrovič 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 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 HNK Rijeka will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HNK Rijeka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Dantas 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.
Ante Oreč 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 HNK Rijeka 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 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.
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 HNK Rijeka would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Dejan Petrovič’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Alfonso Barco on the training pitch
0‑2 against PSV. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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.
Dejan Petrovič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tiago Dantas 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Josip Elez will call it something else in private.
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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Rijeka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lewis Morgan 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 paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Justas Lasickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at HNK Rijeka 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.
4‑1 against Korona, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Vedran Petkov takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vedran Petkov provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ante Majstorović 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 Tiago Dantas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Anel Husić will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutDejan Petrovič has become a man the manager trusts
Two goals and a mark of 8.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Rijeka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Vignato 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Ante Majstorović is on it.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Lewis Morgan will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at HNK Rijeka escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuele Vignato 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. HNK Rijeka will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Justas Lasickas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2‑2 against KV Kortrijk, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Dejan Petrovič was at the centre of the description.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Dejan Petrovič will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at HNK Rijeka escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Position 2, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Dejan Petrovič 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.75, and 2 involvements.
Hajduk Split 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Vedran Petkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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 4‑1 win over Hrvatski Dragovoljac, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Two goals and a mark of 9.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Marko Aščić takes the afternoon — 9.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Aščić provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.63 for the rest of 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 HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Ćubelić 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Marko Aščić in the middle of it, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
0‑1 away to the standard of KV Kortrijk. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Ante Oreč 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 HNK Rijeka 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Vedran Petkov has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lokomotiva Zagreb in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Position 2 and 28 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Vedran Petkov takes the afternoon — 9.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vedran Petkov provided it, and the 9.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Dejan Petrovič and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vedran Petkov. 4‑3 against NK Osijek, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 goals in one match, Vedran Petkov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of HNK Rijeka and NK Osijek.
0‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Dejan Petrovič 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 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.
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 PSV; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dejan Petrovič.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the HNK Rijeka dressing room in a hurry
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Lewis Morgan
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A performance of 8.38 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Dejan Petrovič was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
Half the programme played, position 2, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
4‑1 against Korona, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Krylya Sovetov had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.85 beside his name.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lewis Morgan. 1‑0 against Istra 1961, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
1‑4 against Hajduk Split, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The deal that would have taken Tornike Morchiladze to Dinamo Zagreb has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to HNK Rijeka with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Draguzet and HNK Rijeka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Add another name to the list: Naftan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vito Kovač. The answer from HNK Rijeka has not changed — yet.
16 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.
The offer from Dinamo Zagreb for Tornike Morchiladze 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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now HNK Rijeka have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at HNK Rijeka 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb wanted more than $900.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Dinamo Zagreb tried to reorganise, HNK Rijeka did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: Hajduk Split come into view
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Slaven Belupo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The offer went to Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
HNK Rijeka asked and FC Dallas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuele Vignato. 3‑2 against Slaven Belupo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
$12.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$13.1M settles it between the clubs for Lewis Morgan
Toronto FC have accepted the money. What HNK Rijeka do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
He is going to Stoke City, the club has $12.4M 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Toronto FC 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.5M has been paid because Vedran Petkov is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vedran Petkov has just signed for HNK Rijeka, and for once the answer mattered.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.5M has been paid because Raúl Torrente is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
HNK Rijeka asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Rijeka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The terracesThe town asked, and HNK Rijeka paid $4.5M
Samuele Vignato had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and NK Osijek were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zadar have kept their man, and HNK Rijeka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fran Brodić has, at HNK Rijeka, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mattersburg is saying, and nobody at HNK Rijeka is enjoying the guessing.
Toni Fruk 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 from Honved for Daniel Adu-Adjei 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.
$2.5M on the table at Dinamo Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 HNK Rijeka hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
HNK Rijeka asked and LNZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuele Vignato 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.