Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sibenik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Marko Mikulić 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 Toni Kolega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sibenik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sibenik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Kolega 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.
Sibenik asked and Arda 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Matej Pjaca 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. Nikola 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sibenik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sibenik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sibenik close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal with Istra 1961 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.
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibenik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Kolega 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.
Bayelsa United 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.
The offer from Zadar for Josip Baturina 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sibenik have done the hard part with Rudes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Josip Baturina has agreed terms with Cibalia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Kolega 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 Sibenik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The offer from Dugopolje for Diego Sekulić 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.
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
Sibenik asked and Arda 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 Babic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franko Knez 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 Josip Baturina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Sibenik had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domagoj Antolić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Sibenik 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.
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Evan Weir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domagoj Antolić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sibenik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Leonard Vuk
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evan Weir trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadFranko Knez falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domagoj Antolić 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutEvan Weir asks for a word with the manager
Domagoj Antolić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Kolega 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sibenik, another week without a signature from Evan Weir.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Antonio Imširović has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Matija Jesenović and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franko Knez 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
Marko Mikulić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Husein Sumbuljević will call it something else in private.
Successful dribbles: 43. 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 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.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Kolega 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Leonard Vuk.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sibenik 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 Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Filip Orsic 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario Brekalo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sibenik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Lokomotiva Zagreb go through and Sibenik go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Antolić 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Toni Kolega falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
SquadA Sibenik teenager takes the young player award
Domagoj Antolić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Zadar made Sibenik work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Toni Kolega was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Josip Baturina'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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sibenik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibenik can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Damir Colak is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik 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 Toni Kolega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Sibenik know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
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.
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 4 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Damir Lovren to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franko Knez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko Mikulić 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 Sep 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domagoj Antolić 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.
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Damir Lovren left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Robert Sucic
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac next, and one man in the Sibenik dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Evan Weir has, at Sibenik, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toni Kolega is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Simunovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sibenik, another week without a signature from Evan Weir.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Toni Kolega
Squad17 new faces, and Sibenik are still learning each other
Position 10 and 1 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.
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Sibenik are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Sibenik close the window on a squad of their own making
28 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Istra 1961 keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
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.
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Zagreb were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Segesta this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domagoj Antolić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Sibenik have gone to Dinamo Zagreb with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Domagoj Antolić 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.
Sibenik offered $66.0K; Hajduk Split said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Toni Kolega 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.
Slaven Belupo did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $130.0K for Matija Jesenović, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to Hajduk Split this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sibenik know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Toni Kolega will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Sibenik escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Roko Brajković has just signed for Sibenik, and for once the answer mattered.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Roko Brajković is a Sibenik player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Toni Španja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domagoj Antolić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Josip Bjelica 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. Mateo Boric 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ante Ćorić has, at Sibenik, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$110.0K on the table at Slaven Belupo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Toni Španja 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 goals in one match, Diego Sekulić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sibenik and Rudes.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Sibenik were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.