Marek Icha 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.
Three points for Sigma Olomouc, 1‑0 the final word against Jablonec in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Štěpán Míšek 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.
Marked 7.69. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Marián Tvrdoň
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Štěpán Míšek is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sigma Olomouc know it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Matěj Pulkrab’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sigma Olomouc needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Václav Sejk signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMamadou Barry knocks on the manager's door
Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martin Rymarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sigma Olomouc the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marián Tvrdoň and Sigma Olomouc agree another 2 years.
Marek Icha 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sigma Olomouc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marek Icha was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Štěpán Míšek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Osijek runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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 1‑2 Antonin Darida left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Marián Tvrdoň
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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 Marián Tvrdoň’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sigma Olomouc needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsMamadou Barry beats them one at a time
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Springett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Teplice moved on, Václav Sejk reports back to Sigma Olomouc, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sunday Anyanwu has just signed for Sigma Olomouc, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fabijan Krivak and Sigma Olomouc agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Springett 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.
Javi Montero 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.
Sigma Olomouc ran out of time with Dukla Prague. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Dukla Prague had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $50.3K of what Sigma Olomouc paid for Jan Stejskal is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sigma Olomouc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at Sigma Olomouc 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.
The offer went to Banik Ostrava 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 115th minute. Viktoria Žižkov will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jihlava waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from OFK Beograd for Daniel Smékal 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.
$560.0K on the table at Dukla Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shakhtar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Dukla Prague 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Banik Ostrava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadArtúr Musák falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sigma Olomouc people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Marko Soldo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Artúr Musák 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Anthony Pavlešić 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.
Sigma Olomouc and Sparta Prague have settled on $3.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$170.0K on the table at Dukla Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Stejskal 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. Basel have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Daniel Smékal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“This is 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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AS Trencin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sigma Olomouc have done the hard part with Slovan Liberec, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Javi Montero and Sigma Olomouc agree another 3 years.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Dukla Prague 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 Jan Stejskal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
$520.0K settles it between the clubs for Jan Bačkovský
Dukla Prague have accepted the money. What Sigma Olomouc do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banik Ostrava have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jan Stejskal 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Sigma Olomouc have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Montero 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ústí nad Labem waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Jihlava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dominik Janošek. The answer from Sigma Olomouc has not changed — yet.
7.98, 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.
11 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.
The offer went to Dukla Prague 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.
Marked 7.98. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from MFK Michalovce for Ebuka Okeke 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sparta Prague is saying, and nobody at Sigma Olomouc is enjoying the guessing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
$540.0K was the most the club would pay and Dukla Prague 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc 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 Artúr Musák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Adam Zadražil is in the works
The dugoutJan Stejskal asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
$540.0K on the table at Dukla Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artúr Musák 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Zbrojovka Brno 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Michal Kroupa has his answer from Sigma Olomouc; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sigma Olomouc know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sigma Olomouc people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sigma Olomouc have done the hard part with Sparta Prague, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Stejskal 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Fabijan Krivak has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutJavi Montero knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sigma Olomouc people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 deal with Dukla Prague 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zbrojovka Brno keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Stejskal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
13 new faces, and Sigma Olomouc 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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sparta Prague is saying, and nobody at Sigma Olomouc is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Basel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Montero 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.
Sigma Olomouc have made the call to Zbrojovka Brno. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Péter Baráth has gone, the accounts have $1.5M 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.
The offer from Rivers United for Ebuka Okeke 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.
Zbrojovka Brno paid $1.5M and Sigma Olomouc took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sigma Olomouc have done the hard part with Zbrojovka Brno, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Marko Soldo 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 Jan Stejskal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Péter Baráth again, and this time the name on the line is Banik Ostrava. Sigma Olomouc are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from UTA Arad for Michal Kroupa 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 Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Artúr Musák 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.
Sigma Olomouc have made the call to Spartak Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Montero 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Stejskal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Lurvink will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sigma Olomouc the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 May 2029
Jan Stejskal 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.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2029
Jan Stejskal 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sigma Olomouc, and 12 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sigma Olomouc that is a harder question to answer.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 May 2029
Marek Icha falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sigma Olomouc, another week without a signature from Martin Rymarenko.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sigma Olomouc than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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 Javi Montero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marek Icha 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 Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Viktoria Plzen 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 Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Václav Zahradníček is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sigma Olomouc. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Martin Rymarenko has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Lurvink will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sigma Olomouc the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabijan Krivak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vojtěch Patrák has his answer from Sigma Olomouc; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sigma Olomouc. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc 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 Fabijan Krivak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sigma Olomouc will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Javi Montero 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 Marek Icha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sigma Olomouc are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Janošek signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ústí nad Labem will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Bassey Bassey has pre-agreed a move to Sigma Olomouc, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Javi Montero 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Dulay 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.
11 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.
“I did not go to Viktoria Plzen to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sigma Olomouc and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Montero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say František Matys is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Javi Montero 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.
Michal Kroupa 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.
“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 dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Dominik Kúdelčík'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.
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 Moses Amasi is on it.
Marek Icha 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 Mar 2029
Patrik Dulay falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Janošek signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sigma Olomouc that is a harder question to answer.
21 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
In brief
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Sigma Olomouc
Marko Soldo 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 Javi Montero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Lurvink will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sigma Olomouc the goodbyes have quietly begun.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Montero 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Antonin Darida could afford to be generous.
Up for the corner, and Péter Baráth delivers — 7.63
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Péter Baráth scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Dulay 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I did not go to Slavia Prague to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sigma Olomouc and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Antonin Darida after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
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.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wolfsberger AC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Montero is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Sigma Olomouc and a proper look at me.” He remains Slavia Prague’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
A brace, and Péter Baráth takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Péter Baráth provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Sigma Olomouc 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.
Marko Soldo 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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and 1 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Viktoria Žižkov for Dominik Janošek 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abdoulaye Sylla had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Sigma Olomouc is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dukla Prague have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Viktoria Žižkov have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dominik Janošek. The answer from Sigma Olomouc has not changed — yet.
The chase for Daniel Smékal ended with $1.8M changing hands and Pardubice out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The deal with Shakhtar 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Daniel Smékal was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.8M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Trefil 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sigma Olomouc lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sigma Olomouc people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for Daniel Smékal
Pardubice have accepted the money. What Sigma Olomouc do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Artúr Musák falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marko Soldo has his answer from Sigma Olomouc; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sigma Olomouc lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc 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 Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Marko Soldo 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sigma Olomouc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Péter Baráth, marked 7.84, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sigma Olomouc has been clear about where Péter Baráth stands, which is more than many ever get.
Marked 7.04 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
In brief
SquadMarek Icha falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Javi Montero
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sigma Olomouc lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Trefil 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Marko Soldo 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 Dec 2028
Patrik Dulay 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sigma Olomouc, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
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.” Antonin Darida chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Hradec Králové? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sigma Olomouc lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Trefil 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.
Denis Prendi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Hradec Králové next, and one man in the Sigma Olomouc dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Trefil 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Václav Sejk. 2‑0 against Viktoria Plzen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Tomáš Huk 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 dugout4 Dec 2028
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.” Antonin Darida, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sigma Olomouc told Fabijan Krivak something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Artúr Musák has moved up it.
Jakub Trefil was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Dulay 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 dugout27 Nov 2028
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.” Antonin Darida, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Marko Soldo 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Trefil 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 Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slavia Prague runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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 Michal Beran is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dominik Janošek’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sigma Olomouc needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Janošek signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michal Beran trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Matěj Pulkrab has written the date down.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Montero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Wolfsberger AC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sigma Olomouc and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ľubomír Šatka
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fabijan Krivak 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Patrik Dulay falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Matěj Hadaš 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. Jakub Trefil is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutVáclav Sejk knocks on the manager’s door
Hradec Králové go through and Sigma Olomouc go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
1 for Péter Baráth, marked 7.99, 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.
Péter Baráth 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Jakub Trefil 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 remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sigma Olomouc may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Jakub Trefil 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.
Moses Amasi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sigma Olomouc, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Antonin Darida after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Matěj Hadaš
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sigma Olomouc know it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Dulay 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 at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Péter Baráth signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sigma Olomouc. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Jakub Trefil falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrik Siegl and Sigma Olomouc agree another 4 years.
Something was said to Matěj Hadaš and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Antonin Darida was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sigma Olomouc dressing room was either.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sigma Olomouc may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Up for the corner, and Péter Baráth delivers — 7.55
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Péter Baráth scored, was marked 7.55, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marek Icha 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. Louis Lurvink is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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.” Antonin Darida chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A brace, and Václav Sejk takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Václav Sejk provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Opava tried to reorganise, Sigma Olomouc did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Patrik Dulay 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sigma Olomouc, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Sigma Olomouc offered $3.5M; Pardubice 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.
Marko Soldo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Jakub Trefil 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 dugout18 Sep 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Antonin Darida to a room that had heard them before.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zlin moved on, Jakub Trefil reports back to Sigma Olomouc, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Péter Baráth 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. Dukla Prague have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at České Budějovice runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marek Icha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Banik Ostrava in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CSM Reșița waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The bid was some way short and Sigma Olomouc did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at Sigma Olomouc 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Žižkov have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slovacko runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sigma Olomouc will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Táborsko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Pardubice 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.
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 defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.
The fee is $220.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Slovan Liberec drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
In brief
SquadWords at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$3.4M was the most the club would pay and Pardubice 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.
7.79, 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.
The chase for Denis Prendi ended with $350.0K changing hands and Pribram out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Marko Soldo 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sigma Olomouc will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Viktoria Žižkov waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Pardubice 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 deal with Pribram 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 fee is $630.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Dukla Prague drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sigma Olomouc people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
$630.0K settles it between the clubs for Michal Kroupa
Dukla Prague have accepted the money. What Sigma Olomouc do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Dukla Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jáchym Šíp 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Jan Stejskal for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sigma Olomouc will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Slavia Prague 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ebuka Okeke had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.64 for the rest of it.
Marko Soldo 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc 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 Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mallorca have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc 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. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $540.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Slovacko drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Slovan Liberec paid $870.0K and Sigma Olomouc took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jáchym Šíp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jakub Elbel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sigma Olomouc will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 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. Sigma Olomouc 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 Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
$540.0K on the table at Slovacko. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jáchym Šíp 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Jan Koutný was one of the reasons people came, and $2.5M does not replace that by itself.
Jáchym Šíp 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 name of Jakub Jezierski has come up in conversations Sigma Olomouc were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Marko Soldo 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 Jun 2028
Jáchym Šíp 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jun 2028
9 new faces, and Sigma Olomouc 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.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Jablonec had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Opava waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc 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 Jáchym Šíp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Artis Brno for Filip Slavíček 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.
He is going to Slavia Prague, the club has $1.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The name of Jan Koutný has come up in conversations Sigma Olomouc were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Sparta Prague 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 Fabijan Krivak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Karviná for Matěj Mikulenka 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 deal with Sparta Prague 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 easiest signature of my career.” Matěj Hadaš and Sigma Olomouc agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Jáchym Šíp 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jáchym Šíp 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.
35 games, 25 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Sigma Olomouc now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market29 May 2028
Jakub Trefil returns from a loan that taught him nothing
4 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc 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 Erik Palmer-Brown was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 goals in 29 games at Artis Brno — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and 10 appearances in 47 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ľubomír Šatka and Sigma Olomouc agree another 2 years.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and 13 appearances in 47 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Sigma Olomouc would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Marko Soldo 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
Loan watchAnthony Pavlešić’s loan is measured in nothing happening
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Soldo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jáchym Šíp is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jáchym Šíp trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slovan Bratislava runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Stéphane Noumbissie is on it.
Péter Baráth and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown 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 Sigma Olomouc, and 13 appearances in 43 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 5 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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 Abdoulaye Sylla has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sigma Olomouc that is a harder question to answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, 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 Sigma Olomouc can pretend not to have heard.
Jáchym Šíp 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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sigma Olomouc that is a harder question to answer.
5 shut-outs in 13 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Anthony Pavlešić has been having a lot of them.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Soldo 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.
Something was said to Dominik Janošek and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Jáchym Šíp is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Péter Baráth trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Opava suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Sigma Olomouc, and the summer will force it.
Jáchym Šíp and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown 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 Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slovan Bratislava runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
6 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sigma Olomouc, and 13 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
20 goals in 28 games at Metaloglobus Bucharest — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sigma Olomouc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marko Soldo 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tomáš Huk has his answer from Sigma Olomouc; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 5 on 46 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The 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.
Javi Montero 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Antonin Darida after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Stéphane Noumbissie has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sigma Olomouc have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
19 goals in 27 games at Metaloglobus Bucharest — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Péter Baráth was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown 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.
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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc 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.
“I did not go to Ústí nad Labem to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sigma Olomouc and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
A brace, and Daniel Barát takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Barát provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marko Soldo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Barát 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.
A 2‑0 win over České Budějovice, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Sigma Olomouc are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Sigma Olomouc close the window on a squad of their own making
6 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.
Jáchym Šíp 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.
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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
19 goals in 24 games at Metaloglobus Bucharest — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slovan Bratislava runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutJan Koutný is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Matěj Mikulenka
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Teplice drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Mlada Boleslav said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jan Kliment had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Sigma Olomouc and Teplice have settled on $1.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko Soldo 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 Erik Palmer-Brown 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. Táborsko have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
1 for Péter Baráth, marked 7.86, 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ľubomír Šatka is living that version at Sigma Olomouc, and it tends to show in the first month.
Sigma Olomouc asked and Teplice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Javi Montero and Sigma Olomouc agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Palmer-Brown was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Sparta Prague for Fabijan Krivak 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.
Jáchym Šíp 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 name of Jiří Spáčil has come up in conversations Sigma Olomouc were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Palmer-Brown was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko Soldo 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.
16 goals in 19 games at Metaloglobus Bucharest — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each 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.
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 6.73, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Jan Koutný knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I watch every Sigma Olomouc game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ústí nad Labem runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.82 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson 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 Marek Icha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Zbrojovka Brno to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sigma Olomouc and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Antonin Darida could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc 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 Erik Palmer-Brown was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
11 goals in 17 games at Metaloglobus Bucharest — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout13 Dec 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 Antonin Darida left the room before anybody could ask which.
Marko Soldo 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Palmer-Brown 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jáchym Šíp has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sigma Olomouc.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Marko Soldo 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.
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.
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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and 1 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.