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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 The request is on a desk at Segesta, and it is not being withdrawn.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 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.
25 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.
Luka Kožić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Leon Ivančić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad1 Nov 2027
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.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Segesta had all but put away. Grobnican will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Borna Barišić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
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 Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑1 to Dugo Selo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Segesta can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Uljanik Pula in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
Nobody at Segesta is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
“I watch every Segesta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kustosija runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Segesta would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Trnje were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
6 goals in one match, Luka Mamić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Segesta and Trnje.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luka Mamić. 4‑2 against Trnje, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tonći Kukoč-Petraello and Segesta agree another 2 years.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Travaglia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Luka Mamić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
7 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Segesta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Segesta now.
Squad27 Sep 2027
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Segesta asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éric Chardey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.86, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad20 Sep 2027
7 new faces, and Segesta are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sime Livaja chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Luka Kožić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Segesta asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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. 9 actions, 7.17, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Kustosija for Lorenzo Travaglia was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with Jadran Luka Ploce, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“I watch every Segesta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kustosija runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
7.77, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.97, and 2 involvements.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Segesta asked and 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
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 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.
16 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filip Salković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with NK Varazdin is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at Segesta is enjoying the guessing.
Borna Barišić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dugopolje have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
25 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lovro Herceg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Segesta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at HNK Rijeka, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Everything agreed with HNK Rijeka, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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 HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A brace, and Luka Mamić takes the afternoon — 8.08
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Mamić provided it, and the 8.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Segesta
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Sucic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Filip Grbic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Segesta asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Segesta know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Segesta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Rudes 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.
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.
Orijent 1919 paid $180.0K and Segesta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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 offer from HNK Vukovar 1991 for Leon Ivančić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sesvete had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 deal with Rudes is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Matanović 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 loan enquiry to NK Osijek: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Segesta are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
HNK Rijeka arrived with $630.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Stipo Marković has gone, the accounts have $630.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ante Buneta has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dino Špehar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sekou Sanogo was one of the reasons people came, and $150.0K does not replace that by itself.
“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.
Segesta asked and Rudes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from HNK Rijeka for Stipo Marković was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Orijent 1919 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Segesta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slaven Belupo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Segesta asked and NK Osijek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Matanović 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.
Position 3, 49 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Segesta will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bartol Kunert will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Vlatko Martinović 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 Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and Segesta are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Segesta no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
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 Filip Salković is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Segesta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 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.
Squad17 May 2027
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.
“I watch every Segesta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at BSK Bijelo Brdo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Segesta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Sekou Sanogo
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 Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Matanović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Nižić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Segesta will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
Position 3, 49 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bartol Kunert will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Domagoj Mamić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Adam Jackuliak is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Uwem Alexander trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sekou Sanogo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Domagoj Mamić 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. Bastián Tapia Gomes has just signed for Segesta, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Domagoj Mamić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Segesta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at BSK Bijelo Brdo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Segesta will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sekou Sanogo has written the date down.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sekou Sanogo 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Segesta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 3, 49 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.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sekou Sanogo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Segesta, and 1 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Domagoj Mamić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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.
“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 Luka Nižić.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Bjelivuk has his answer from Segesta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sekou Sanogo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Domagoj Mamić 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Segesta will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Segesta, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sven Šunta did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
7.68, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Borna Barišić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
28 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Sime Livaja left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
44 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Segesta close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sekou Sanogo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Segesta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sohaib El Idrissi has, at Segesta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
7.20, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Domagoj Mamić 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. Dugopolje have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
Radnik Krizevci will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Segesta were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Segesta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grobnican waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Segesta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from HNK Vukovar 1991 for Dino Špehar was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Segesta asked and Karlovac 1919 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The phone has started ringing about Sekou Sanogo again, and this time the name on the line is Opatija. Segesta are listening politely and promising nothing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 3, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Travaglia did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Sven Šunta, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Borna Barišić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 2‑0 win over Hrvatski Dragovoljac, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Travaglia did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Stipo Marković 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Uwem Alexander. 2‑1 against Kustosija, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Vilim Gec has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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 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.
A mark of 8.08 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.
Domagoj Mamić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 2‑1 win over Djakovo Croatia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 3 players sit outside all 4 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Sven Šunta, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Domagoj Mamić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Sven Šunta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Vilim Gec, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 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.
1 for Borna Barišić, marked 7.79, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Stipo Marković and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Travaglia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sime Livaja on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Sekou Sanogo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Filip Holjevac'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.
Bjelovar next, and one man in the Segesta dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
7.91, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dino Špehar. 2‑0 against Solin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sime Livaja kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Segesta know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Segesta told Sven Šunta something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Karlo Bilić 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.
Vito Kovač 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sime Livaja to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nobody at Segesta is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Dugo Selo, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Sven Šunta, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Segesta is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Karlo Bilić 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Luka Kožić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Segesta.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sime Livaja, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Bartol Kunert
Domagoj Mamić 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 Oct 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Something was said to Domagoj Mamić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Segesta has been clear about where Lovro Herceg stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Segesta will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Domagoj Mamić 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Segesta and Trnje, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Bilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vilim Gec has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sime Livaja after 3‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A mark of 8.11 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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jadran Luka Ploce were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Bilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Stipo Marković was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Domagoj Mamić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tonći Kukoč-Petraello 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sime Livaja chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Segesta man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Dino Špehar was the best thing in any of them.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Filip Holjevac's mistake
A brace, and Dino Špehar takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dino Špehar provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Bilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sime Livaja after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Segesta told Marko Brkić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Segesta will try again when the window opens; Kustosija may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Bilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Stipo Marković has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vilim Gec is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lorenzo Travaglia’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Segesta needing him to play as if none of it matters.
5 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luka Kožić scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Segesta have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Sekou Sanogo 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 1‑1 draw with Uskok leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sime Livaja chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Holjevac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Lucko go through and Segesta go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Segesta has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Karlo Bilić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Segesta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ivan Bjelivuk
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vilim Gec did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Segesta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Segesta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karlo Bilić 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Stipo Marković'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.
Dinamo Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Everything agreed with NK Varazdin, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tonći Kukoč-Petraello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Josip Sucic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Milan Babic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luka Srna 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A 3‑1 win over Djakovo Croatia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Karlo Bilić 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 20 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.
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.