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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Lovro Herceg
Back issues
178Edition
The Segesta Gazette
24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces24 Dec 2029
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey 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 Éric Chardey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éric Chardey 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $17.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“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.
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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sol Solomon 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ivan Kapac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Patrik Horvat
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Patrik Horvat has come out of that comparison in the side, and Segesta have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 Éric Chardey 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Segesta could ask drops and the wages Lovro Herceg can ask rise.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
Lovro Herceg 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Éric Chardey 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Segesta has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Patrik Horvat, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davud Alibašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
SquadÉric Chardey falls out with a teammate over standards
170Edition
The Segesta Gazette
29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces29 Oct 2029
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
4 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 Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marko Bilic 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. Mato Kovac is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Filip Barisic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bojan Bjelica 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.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Éric Chardey 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 was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Segesta lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Sol Solomon's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davud Alibašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Segesta prefer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Segesta, another week without a signature from Lovro Herceg.
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Éric Chardey
The dugoutPatrik Horvat has become a man the manager trusts
166Edition
The Segesta Gazette
1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondentUpbeat
The terraces1 Oct 2029
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 3, 18 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.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ronnie Stutter provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Patrik Horvat, 21, 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 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Lovro Herceg 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éric Chardey is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $17.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“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.
Lovro Herceg 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 Sep 2029
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronnie Stutter 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.
Position 6, 12 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davud Alibašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.11, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Segesta has been clear about where Sol Solomon stands, which is more than many ever get.
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 26 gone
That is the business done at Segesta 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.
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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éric Chardey 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. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Segesta and Rudes, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Rudes left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronnie Stutter 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Add another name to the list: Imotski have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Davud Alibašić. The answer from Segesta has not changed — yet.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Éric Chardey falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Segesta are still learning each other
Segesta interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davud Alibašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mathaeus Roberts has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Segesta know it.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Éric Chardey 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
18 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Patrik Horvat scored in the 86th minute, HNK Vukovar 1991 had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Segesta took the lot.
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.
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.
25 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.
Segesta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Éric Chardey 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $16.3M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Segesta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Patrik Horvat is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: HNK Gorica keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simon Esosa Aibangbee has agreed terms with NK Varazdin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
39 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Everything agreed with Hajduk Split, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Segesta 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with Hajduk Split, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: NK Osijek keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dejan Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Gorica 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Lindstrom has, at Segesta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronnie Stutter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Segesta 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Geliano Fortes has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Segesta asked and HNK Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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.
Hajduk Split have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutRonnie Stutter asks for a word with the manager
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
Everything agreed with Hajduk Split, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nathan Borges is living that version at Segesta, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Segesta 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dejan Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
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.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
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.
Hajduk Split 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.
Marko Brkić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Éric Chardey 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Esteban Alberto arrives at Segesta with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Luka Ćurković 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad21 May 2029
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.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Segesta could ask drops and the wages Roko Brajković can ask rise.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dejan Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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.
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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad7 May 2029
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ronnie Stutter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Marko Brkić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Ivan Kapac 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $15.6M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ronnie Stutter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Segesta told John Mengi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Filip Salković on the training pitch
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad23 Apr 2029
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 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.
Mislav Tadic 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.
“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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Segesta could ask drops and the wages John Mengi can ask rise.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronnie Stutter 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.
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 Ronnie Stutter 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.
“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 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 8 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kaidon Robinson has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad26 Mar 2029
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.
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.
5 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ivan Kapac falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Bjelivuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Segesta that is a harder question to answer.
“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.
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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Segesta, another week without a signature from Lovro Herceg.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Sekou Sanogo is on it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $14.6M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
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.
20 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.
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.
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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Ivan Kapac falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Segesta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
27 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.
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Éric Chardey for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Segesta will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dejan Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Segesta close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
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.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
48 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.
Everything agreed with Slaven Belupo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
In brief
SquadWords at Segesta training over how hard people work
Boardroom100% of the income goes out in wages at Segesta
The dugoutStipe Pasalic knocks on the manager’s door
55 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 terraces22 Jan 2029
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. John Stewart has, at Segesta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad22 Jan 2029
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.
Hajduk Split 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.
62 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.
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 Ivan Jajalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Segesta would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dino Špehar signs something — a contract at Segesta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Segesta could ask drops and the wages Roko Brajković can ask rise.
69 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dejan Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lucko have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
76 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.
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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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.
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.
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.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Patrik Horvat
84 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
Luka Ćurković 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 Ivan Jajalo 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.
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.
91 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.
“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.
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.
Squad18 Dec 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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Éric Chardey
SquadQuestions about Franko Knez on the training pitch
98 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.
“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.
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.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
105 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
112 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and 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.
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 Dijanis Dudić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
119 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.
“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.
Position 8 on 16 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.
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.
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.
Sesvete made Segesta work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad20 Nov 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.
126 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.
“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.
4 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.
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.
Cibalia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
133 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Luka Ćurković 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a 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.
In brief
SquadDino Špehar falls out with a teammate over standards
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Kožić 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutÉric Chardey knocks on the manager’s door
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.
Position 8 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Segesta can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
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.
8 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.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
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.
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Luka Kožić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
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.
1‑4 to Dugopolje, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
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.
6 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Patrik Horvat did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad25 Sep 2028
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.
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 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Jajalo 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. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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 mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luka Kožić scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Segesta 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Éric Chardey, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with Istra 1961, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slaven Belupo is saying, and nobody at Segesta is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Segesta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Segesta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
10 seasons and 265 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Hajduk Split keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Imotski, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A brace, and Marko Brkić takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Brkić provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with Istra 1961, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
At 23 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.
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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
At 23 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.
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.
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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
“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.
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.
Luka Kožić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Uwem Alexander has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Hajduk Split 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Éric Chardey has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kožić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dino Špehar signs something — a contract at Segesta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 142 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Everything was agreed with Hajduk Split and then the doctor spoke. Segesta have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kožić 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marin Cop 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 Majer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hrvoje Barisic 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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 Ćurković 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. NK Varazdin have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Jajalo 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Segesta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with NK Osijek, 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.
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.
Squad5 Jun 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.
Position 9 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. John Mengi has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tomislav 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marko Kramaric is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Kovac 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Ivan Kapac falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutÉric Chardey asks for a word with the manager
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 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.
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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDijanis Dudić knocks on the manager's door
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Segesta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Paul Bismarck Tabinas is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Brkić signs something — a contract at Segesta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Paul Bismarck Tabinas's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad1 May 2028
Sekou Sanogo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He 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.
“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.
Luka Ćurković 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.
Squad24 Apr 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.
In brief
The dugoutRoko Brajković asks for a word with the manager
SquadThe training reports on Dino Rebic are not good
90Edition
The Segesta Gazette
17 Apr 2028
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces17 Apr 2028
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
Luka Ćurković and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Apr 2028
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 Roko Brajković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
In brief
The dugoutÉric Chardey asks for a word with the manager
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Segesta will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
“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 Dino Špehar 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 Filip Salković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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 Mar 2028
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Brkić signs something — a contract at Segesta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 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.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Ivan Kapac on the training pitch
Position 9 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Segesta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
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.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Segesta now.
Squad6 Mar 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Paul Bismarck Tabinas's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Luka Ćurković 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roko Brajković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dino Špehar
82Edition
The Segesta Gazette
21 Feb 2028
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces21 Feb 2028
The mood at Segesta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
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 Éric Chardey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Matej Stanisic on the training pitch
SquadPatrik Horvat is training like a man with a point to make
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.
“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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Brkić signs something — a contract at Segesta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Segesta spent the window trying to move Luka Kožić on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Filip Salković are not good
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Segesta 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.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Franko Knez is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.