107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Segesta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Raul Kumar 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.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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 Segesta 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 Raul Kumar 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.
Position 3, 31 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Yokohama F. Marinos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Segesta asked and Nimes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Vilim Gec 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 Dino Špehar 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.18, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Segesta close the window on a squad of their own making
3 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.
Luka Kožić 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 Vito Čaić 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. Chernomorets have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“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 Segesta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vito Čaić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Segesta will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Uwem Alexander trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atromitos have kept their man, and Segesta 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Segesta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HNK Vukovar 1991 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 Matej Grahovac is on it.
Matej Grahovac 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 Vito Čaić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Segesta are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Nikša Čulina is on it.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Segesta know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
The deal with HNK Gorica 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.
Luka Kožić 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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.
Segesta 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.
Karol Klich is 15, and Segesta have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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. Segesta will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Segesta had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Matej Grahovac 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 Jan 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Segesta have made the call to Istra 1961. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Antonio Vlasic is 18, and Segesta have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugoutSekou Sanogo has become a man the manager trusts
BoardroomOpen for business: Segesta enter the window
74Edition
The Segesta Gazette
27 Dec 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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.
Vilim Gec 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.
“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 Segesta, and 5 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Segesta 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathaeus Roberts trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 3, 31 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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.
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 Nikša Čulina is on it.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Segesta know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tom Žurga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Patrik Horvat is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleg Gonsevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luka Kožić 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Tom Žurga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vilim Gec is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Something was said to Bartol Kunert and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateo Bačić signs something — a contract at Segesta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutSekou Sanogo has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutLeon Ivančić knocks on the manager's door
Matej Grahovac 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 Vito Čaić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Segesta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at HNK Vukovar 1991 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Segesta 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. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 3 on 31 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 3, 31 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tom Žurga 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 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Segesta know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Matej Grahovac 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
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dino Špehar will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Segesta 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nikša Čulina
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 8.36, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Segesta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Vito Čaić 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.
Vilim Gec 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vilim Gec 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. Segesta will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Segesta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luka Kožić 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A brace, and Mateo Bačić takes the afternoon — 9.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Bačić provided it, and the 9.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Segesta 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.” Segesta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta 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: Mateo Bačić. 3‑1 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Vito Čaić 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.
Luka Kožić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Segesta can tell you which week it ends in.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Segesta told Vito Čaić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kristijan Bilic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Segesta dressing room was either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Segesta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matej Grahovac 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kristijan Bilic after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Segesta has been clear about where Ivan Jajalo stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Segesta may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Patrik Horvat, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 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.
Matej Grahovac 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 Vito Čaić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 8.52, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match25 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Segesta. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Vito Čaić 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Segesta can pretend not to have heard.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Marko Brkić 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Vilim Gec 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Kapac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 3, 17 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleg Gonsevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luka Kožić 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vito Čaić 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Segesta will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Segesta are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Stipo Marković
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Segesta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matej Grahovac is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Segesta close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 2 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with HNK Gorica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Luka Kožić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Rudes are out and Segesta go through, 2‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Patrik Horvat takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrik Horvat provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 12 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Segesta asked and Slaven Belupo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19 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 words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Patrik Horvat, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Segesta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Segesta asked and NK Varazdin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Segesta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Segesta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Vlatko Martinović has left for Slaven Belupo in a $89.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Žurga 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.
Matej Grahovac 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Marko Brkić scored in the 86th minute, HNK Vukovar 1991 had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Segesta took the lot.
“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 Segesta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Segesta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with Slaven Belupo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Tom Žurga 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.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A brace, and Mateo Bačić takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Bačić provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything agreed with NK Osijek, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Segesta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at HNK Gorica, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Segesta offered $130.0K; Dugopolje 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sesvete have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marko Brkić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 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
SquadWords at Segesta training over how hard people work
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Segesta can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Segesta offered $290.0K; Sesvete 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.
Luka Kožić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Segesta have made the call to HNK Gorica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kristijan Bilic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
BoardroomSegesta turn down the training-ground plan
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Segesta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Segesta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Segesta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everything agreed with Dugopolje, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Segesta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Osijek, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Luka Kožić 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.
Segesta 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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Segesta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Segesta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Segesta can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dugopolje keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Segesta asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Luka Kožić 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Domagoj Kasalo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bojan Srna 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Segesta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Segesta have made the call to HNK Rijeka. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Segesta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Sesvete 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.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Éric Chardey had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Segesta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Istra 1961, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Segesta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Segesta asked and Slaven Belupo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Kapac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Slaven Belupo for Stipo Marković 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.
Segesta and Sesvete have settled on $350.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: HNK Rijeka keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Éric Chardey again, and this time the name on the line is Cibalia. Segesta are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slaven Belupo have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Vilim Gec 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Slaven Belupo 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Segesta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Segesta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Segesta asked and Rudes 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 Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
Segesta 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.
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.
Position 2, 30 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Segesta have had the benefit of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bartol Kunert was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Segesta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Luka Kožić 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Segesta, and 13 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Segesta 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Segesta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
Daniel Cruz 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 Patrik Horvat is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Segesta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ivan Kapac 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Josip Modric 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 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 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 Segesta will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Vlatko Martinović has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Matej Grahovac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathaeus Roberts trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Segesta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
Matej Grahovac 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, 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 Nikša Čulina is on it.
He is 18, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Matej Grahovac 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 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 Segesta 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mateo Livaja 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Uwem Alexander’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Position 2, 30 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Segesta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Segesta the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Žurga 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 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 Segesta will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
An average of 7.15 in a first team he is several years too young for. Segesta have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Dino Špehar 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 Segesta 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.
Matej Grahovac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
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 Vlatko Martinović has written the date down.
Position 2, 30 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martin Bilic 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathaeus Roberts 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A new face in his position, and Karlo Bilić suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Segesta have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Segesta are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Matej Grahovac 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Segesta has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Segesta know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Luka Kožić 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 Dino Špehar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathaeus Roberts was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Kapac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Segesta opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Oleg Gonsevich stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Segesta may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Segesta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Segesta close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 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.
Ivan Kapac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Dino Špehar 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.
Segesta have made the call to NK Varazdin. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Segesta have made the call to HNK Rijeka. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Segesta has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He is 18, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Everything agreed with HNK Rijeka, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Matej Grahovac 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Segesta have made the call to Slaven Belupo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Segesta 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Segesta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with HNK Gorica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 2, 30 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Cibalia for Éric Chardey 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Segesta will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Matej Grahovac 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ionut Cicaldau has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ivan Jajalo 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 season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Segesta know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Luka Kožić 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Segesta 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Jajalo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Segesta will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Vilim Gec has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ivan Kapac 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Matej Grahovac 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mateo Bačić is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Segesta will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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 Nikša Čulina is on it.
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Segesta know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Matej Grahovac 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
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 Patrik Horvat 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 Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
3 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Bačić. 2‑1 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ivan Kapac was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ivan Jajalo 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.” Kristijan Bilic on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Position 2, 27 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mateo Bačić did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 18 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.
Sibenik made Segesta work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Dino Špehar 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.” Kristijan Bilic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mateo Bačić did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Luka Kožić 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Bačić 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cibalia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikola Petkov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Three points for Segesta, 1‑0 the final word against Cibalia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dino Špehar 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Segesta told Mateo Bačić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kristijan Bilic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Bjelivuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dino Špehar 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dugopolje defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Segesta will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kristijan Bilic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Segesta dressing room was either.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Patrik Horvat, 18, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Segesta would like this to lead.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Patrik Horvat, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Matej Grahovac 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. Darijo Erceg 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Petar Tadic 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Segesta told Patrik Horvat something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
12 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.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 8.52, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matej Grahovac is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Matej Grahovac 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Segesta will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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 hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrik Horvat. 2‑0 against Rudes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kristijan Bilic on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Nikša Čulina
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Nobody at Segesta 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Luka Kožić
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Bačić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ivan Bjelivuk 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Kristijan Bilic, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Segesta asked and Slaven Belupo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stipe Rebic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario Budimir is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dino Špehar 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Kristijan Bilic to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mathaeus Roberts has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Segesta close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 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.
12 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Stipo Marković has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Segesta will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mateo Bačić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ivan Kapac 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Kristijan Bilic could afford to be generous.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
At 18 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
In brief
The dugoutNikša Čulina has become a man the manager trusts
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 106th minute. Hrvatski Dragovoljac will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Marko Brkić takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Brkić provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Hrvatski Dragovoljac for Noel Kocijančić 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta 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 Dino Špehar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Kožić 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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. Slaven Belupo have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 1‑0 win over Sesvete, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Dino Špehar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Holjevac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Segesta are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dugopolje 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 Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Segesta is enjoying the guessing.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Kapac 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fran Majer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andrej Simunovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Kovac 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.
Luka Kožić 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Dino Špehar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.46. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Špehar 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. Lokomotiva Zagreb have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsIvan Jajalo beats them one at a time