There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 7.84 for the rest of it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mohamed Shehata is living that version at MFK Skalica, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Branislav Niňaj 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.
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Podhorín 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tiaguinho commits to MFK Skalica for another 1 years.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
89% of the income goes out in wages at MFK Skalica
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Tiaguinho is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Lukáš Fabiš 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Branislav Niňaj'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.
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Branislav Niňaj 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
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.
Peter Guinari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lukáš Fabiš falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Adam Morong will want back
Player ratingsAn afternoon Roman Potočný will want back
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MFK Skalica can pretend not to have heard.
Martin Junas 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.
FK Senica left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukáš Fabiš 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Branislav Niňaj has come out of that comparison in the side, and MFK Skalica have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Marked 5.40. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MFK Skalica can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $240.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Podbrezova 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 MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
MFK Skalica spend $240.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $240.0K for Ondřej Deml, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 99th minute. AS Trencin will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“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 MFK Skalica, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Martin Junas 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Spartak Trnava left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lukáš Fabiš 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Martin Mášik has his answer from MFK Skalica; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Branislav Niňaj 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 phone has started ringing about Mário Hollý again, and this time the name on the line is Spartak Myjava. MFK Skalica are listening politely and promising nothing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MFK Skalica, another week without a signature from Erik Daniel.
Still no offer on the table, and Martin Junas’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukáš Fabiš 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.