“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Roman Potočný had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sigma Olomouc is saying, and nobody at MFK Skalica is enjoying the guessing.
MFK Skalica asked and Zenit 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 MFK Skalica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Martin Mášik 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MFK Skalica has been clear about where Erik Riška stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MFK Skalica will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer from Slovan Bratislava for Roman Potočný 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. MFK Skalica had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The deal with AS Trencin 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Morávek 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.
MFK Skalica asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Richard Ludha 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.
Add another name to the list: AS Trencin have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mário Hollý. The answer from MFK Skalica has not changed — yet.
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Morávek 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.
Richard Ludha and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MFK Skalica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at MFK Skalica the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Samuel Suľa
SquadMartin Junas is training like a man with a point to make
Position 3, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azat Bairyev, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Mášik is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 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 Martin Nagy has written the date down.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Skalica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Jan Morávek 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 MFK Skalica is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Morávek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Damián Bariš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Petr Pudhorocký. 2‑0 against AS Trencin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
In brief
Player ratingsPetr Pudhorocký was on a different afternoon to everybody else
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Skalica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Podbrezova, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Damián Bariš and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Mášik 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: 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrik Lobotka after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MFK Skalica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A 3‑1 win over FK Senica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Morávek 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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MFK Skalica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.87, 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.
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jan Morávek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Azat Bairyev
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Skalica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Richard Ludha was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Martin Mášik 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the MFK Skalica dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Patrik Lobotka to a room that had heard them before.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Skalica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” MFK Skalica may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jan Morávek 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 MFK Skalica, another week without a signature from Jack Aitchison.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order MFK Skalica prefer.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Patrik Lobotka left the room before anybody could ask which.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MFK Skalica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MFK Skalica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Position 2, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Morávek is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Skalica 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 Martin Mášik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Skalica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
MFK Michalovce will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. MFK Skalica were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
16 goals and a season average of 7.47 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Morávek is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Patrik Lobotka on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Morávek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Skalica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Petr Pudhorocký and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Martin Mášik 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Patrik Lobotka left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratingsMarek Ujlaky on a tightrope all afternoon
8Edition
The MFK Skalica Gazette
21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Samuel Kucka damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
1‑4 against AS Trencin, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
7.40, 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Morávek 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.
Petr Pudhorocký 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.” Patrik Lobotka after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. MFK Skalica deserved better, and so did he.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MFK Skalica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.73 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roman Potočný. 3‑1 against Podbrezova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jan Morávek 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.
Samuel Kucka damages knee ligaments — 124 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.70 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Levan Nonikashvili has gone, the accounts have $560.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at MFK Skalica 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Podbeskidzie keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Samuel Kucka damages knee ligaments — 133 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 133 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.22 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 MFK Skalica can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
MFK Skalica had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sigma Olomouc, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Morávek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
MFK Skalica asked and Viktoria Plzen 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. Patrick Karhan 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.
0‑3 against MSK Zilina, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 deal with Sigma Olomouc 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.
MFK Skalica had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dukla Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jan Morávek 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.
7.75, 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 offer from MFK Michalovce for Peter Guinari 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Potočný was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MSK Zilina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at MFK Skalica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.77 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Philip Onyedika did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MFK Skalica have done the hard part with Viktoria Plzen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jan Morávek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Podbeskidzie have kept their man, and MFK Skalica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erik Daniel and MFK Skalica agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jan Morávek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pribram have kept their man, and MFK Skalica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. MFK Skalica will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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.