It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Slaven Belupo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Filip Jović 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
Ricardo Costa 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 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Hajduk Split.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Slaven Belupo can tell you which week it ends in.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Costa 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Slaven Belupo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ammeer Auwal 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 dugout6 Nov 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 Josip Tadic to a room that had heard them before.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrik Marić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slaven Belupo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Costa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout30 Oct 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Josip Tadic to a room that had heard them before.
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 Arnór Gauti Jónsson is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Antonio Milić
A 1‑0 win over Jadran Luka Ploce, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Slaven Belupo scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo 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 Ricardo Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukas Zahora 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.
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Filip Jović 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Cvetko, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Lepinjica 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 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.
HNK Gorica next, and one man in the Slaven Belupo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karlo Sentić signs something — a contract at Slaven Belupo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Costa 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 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 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Slaven Belupo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Costa 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Slaven Belupo scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Everybody at Slaven Belupo saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal 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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Marko Žuljević scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Orijent 1919, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Ricardo Costa 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.
Something was said to Filip Krušelj and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The mood at Slaven Belupo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lukas Zahora will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slaven Belupo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$550.0K was the most the club would pay and HNK Gorica 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Costa 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Josip Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $323.6K of what Slaven Belupo paid for Éric Chardey is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dugopolje; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Slaven Belupo 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.
$550.0K on the table at HNK Gorica. 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Koper moved on, Petar Andrić reports back to Slaven Belupo, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Luka Bradarić at that price
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slaven Belupo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slaven Belupo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $200.0K — a club that wants Luka Bradarić enough to be asked twice.
$190.0K on the table at Grobnican. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$130.0K on the table at Dugopolje. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uljanik Pula have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slaven Belupo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $60.0K — a club that wants Ivan Kargotić enough to be asked twice.
$57.0K on the table at Uljanik Pula. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ricardo Costa 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slaven Belupo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cotonsport Garoua waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
$66.0K settles it between the clubs for Antonio Milić
HNK Rijeka have accepted the money. What Slaven Belupo 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. Charlton Athletic have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Slaven Belupo 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slaven Belupo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Neman for Petar Andrić 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 fee is $260.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiva Zagreb drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovro Banovec 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. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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 Amad Keita has come up in conversations Slaven Belupo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Slaven Belupo have gone to Lokomotiva Zagreb with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lovro Banovec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Charlton Athletic 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 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.
The offer from Hrvace for Ivan Čović 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Slaven Belupo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Slaven Belupo asked and Shrewsbury Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Igor Lepinjica 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 mood at Slaven Belupo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Slaven Belupo offered $280.0K; Grobnican 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Banovec 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.” Petar Andrić and Slaven Belupo agree another 4 years.
Antonio Perić 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slaven Belupo heard it as anything else.
The fee is $220.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Uskok drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Kovačić 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Slaven Belupo know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The chase for Moris Valinčić ended with $7.3M changing hands and Dinamo Zagreb out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Slaven Belupo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The clubs have shaken hands with Uskok; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Zagreb; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$53.0K was the most the club would pay and Bjelovar 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Banovec 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Bucharest have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Filip Jović 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: Varteks have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Čović. The answer from Slaven Belupo has not changed — yet.
The mood at Slaven Belupo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Slaven Belupo
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Slaven Belupo offered $1.2M; Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Istra 1961 paid $260.0K and Slaven Belupo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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.
Slaven Belupo asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Slaven Belupo offered $2.5M; NK Osijek 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ammeer Auwal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A loan enquiry to Rapid Bucharest: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Krušelj is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slaven Belupo, another week without a signature from Ivan Cvetko.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matija Jesenović has his answer from Slaven Belupo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Josip Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with HNK Rijeka; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$840.0K on the table at Lokomotiva Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Igor Lepinjica 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: Jarun Zagreb have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filip Mažar. The answer from Slaven Belupo has not changed — yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
17 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Slaven Belupo now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Cvetko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matija Jesenović may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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 Arnór Gauti Jónsson is on it.
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.
In brief
SquadPatrik Marić is training like a man with a point to make
The mood at Slaven Belupo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
15 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Matija Jesenović has been having a lot of them.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Slaven Belupo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Xavi 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 Slaven Belupo, and 11 appearances in 49 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Krušelj is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Krušelj 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 Slaven Belupo has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Ljuban Crepulja has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Dejan Glavica’s negotiating for him
Position 9 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrik Marić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slaven Belupo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ljuban Crepulja and Slaven Belupo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Filip Jović 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Hrvoje Brekalo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hrvoje Babic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Milan Kramaric is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadWords at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
The dugoutKirill Kravtsov loses the manager who believed in him
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filip Mažar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slaven Belupo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Filip Jović 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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Kirill Kravtsov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Slaven Belupo would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The mood at Slaven Belupo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Slaven Belupo
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him 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.
30 appearances at Segesta and the goals have stopped going in. Slaven Belupo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Ammeer Auwal 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 watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia 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 Arnór Gauti Jónsson is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Filip Krušelj has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
In brief
The dugoutPatrik Marić knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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 Leonard Žuta is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, 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.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Slaven Belupo says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Josip Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
15 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Matija Jesenović has been having a lot of them.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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 Igor Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Krušelj is on it.
Position 9 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slaven Belupo, another week without a signature from Filip Jović.
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 Leonard Žuta 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Josip Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Arnór Gauti Jónsson and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Kirill Kravtsov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
15 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Segesta. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutPatrik Marić knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marko Žuljević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 9 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: NK Osijek keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo 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 Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Darijo Vlasic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikola Barisic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Josip Sutalo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Josip Tadic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Slaven Belupo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Dinamo Zagreb will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Samy Mmaee has pre-agreed a move to Slaven Belupo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Igor Lepinjica 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.
14 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Segesta. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kustosija waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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 Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Slaven Belupo told Josip Mitrović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo 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 Slaven Belupo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Kustosija will make the call about Patrik Marić this week. Slaven Belupo have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at NK Osijek is saying, and nobody at Slaven Belupo is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Slaven Belupo asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Slaven Belupo have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
$4.1M on the table at NK Osijek. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Gorica have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Igor Lepinjica 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.
22 appearances at Segesta and the goals have stopped going in. Slaven Belupo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The name of Filip Mažar has come up in conversations Slaven Belupo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The mood at Slaven Belupo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Slaven Belupo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Filip Krušelj and Slaven Belupo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mladost Zdralovi have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
13 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Segesta. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Igor Lepinjica 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.
12 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Segesta. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karlo Sentić signs something — a contract at Slaven Belupo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 13 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Tomislav Božić.
HNK Vukovar 1991 go through and Slaven Belupo go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Slaven Belupo can tell you which week it ends in.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arnór Gauti Jónsson and Slaven Belupo agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dominik Kovačić, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Lepinjica 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karlo Sentić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 9 and 13 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slaven Belupo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Igor Lepinjica.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slaven Belupo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Slaven Belupo, and 8 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Jović is on it.
HNK Rijeka next, and one man in the Slaven Belupo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Slaven Belupo would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
Igor Lepinjica and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dominik Kovačić will call it something else in private.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Josip Tadic after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ljuban Crepulja is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
14 appearances at Segesta and the goals have stopped going in. Slaven Belupo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lovro Banovec’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Slaven Belupo.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Lepinjica 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Josip Tadic, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Position 9 and 9 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.
7.31, 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 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.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Josip Tadic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Krušelj is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Žiga Pečjak 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Lepinjica 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Slaven Belupo told Filip Jović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karlo Sentić 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against NK Osijek in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ljuban Crepulja and Slaven Belupo agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Igor Lepinjica was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody will confirm 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.
The dugout4 Oct 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 Josip Tadic left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 7.96 for the rest of it.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Lokomotiva Zagreb were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Kravtsov. 2‑0 against Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Josip Tadic could afford to be generous.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Slaven Belupo can tell you which week it ends in.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Slaven Belupo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Xavi 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Josip Tadic to a room that had heard them before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Slaven Belupo will try again when the window opens; Dugopolje may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Igor Lepinjica 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 clubs have shaken hands with Dugopolje; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $700.1K of what Slaven Belupo paid for Antonio Marin is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Petar Andrić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Something was said to Filip Krušelj and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 9 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slaven Belupo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Slaven Belupo offered $280.0K; Bjelovar said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Slaven Belupo asked and Juve Stabia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Arnór Gauti Jónsson 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.
0‑3 to Dinamo Zagreb, 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.
The offer from Uljanik Pula for Filip Mažar 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $20.3M — a club that wants Hojimat Erkinov enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Bjelovar 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 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. Holstein Kiel have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ammeer Auwal 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
BoardroomNobody left the Slaven Belupo dressing room in a hurry
Slaven Belupo have gone to Bunyodkor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
1 for Mihail Caimacov, marked 7.32, 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Kravtsov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Igor Lepinjica 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.
Marked 6.91 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The phone has started ringing about Ivan Cvetko again, and this time the name on the line is Rudes. Slaven Belupo are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadSlaven Belupo are still strangers to each other
Everything agreed with Olimpija Ljubljana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bari have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Petar Andrić, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Lepinjica is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slaven Belupo, another week without a signature from Petar Andrić.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Krunoslav Hendija and Slaven Belupo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Slaven Belupo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slaven Belupo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Xavi is living that version at Slaven Belupo, and it tends to show in the first month.
The chase for Xavi ended with $370.0K changing hands and Rudes out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The fee is $280.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. BSK Bijelo Brdo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Uljanik Pula have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filip Mažar. The answer from Slaven Belupo has not changed — yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Karlovac 1919 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ljuban Crepulja scored, was marked 7.52, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Éric Chardey is living that version at Slaven Belupo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Marko Dabro has gone, the accounts have $1.3M 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.
Slaven Belupo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Maribor, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Istra 1961 paid $1.3M and Slaven Belupo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer went to Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Lepinjica 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.
Filip Jović 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.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slaven Belupo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to Segesta this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov 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 Arnór Gauti Jónsson is on it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiva Zagreb waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Slaven Belupo, 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Segesta have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 appearances and 21 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Orenburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
21 appearances and 21 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Slaven Belupo have gone to Rudes with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomislav Božić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lokomotiva Zagreb pay $38.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The name of Ivan Cvetko has come up in conversations Slaven Belupo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Slaven Belupo have made the call to Orenburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Slaven Belupo 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grobnican waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Slaven Belupo asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Dinamo Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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 Karlo Sentić signs something — a contract at Slaven Belupo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$27.0K on the table at Dinamo Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Cibalia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Losika Ratshukudu. The answer from Slaven Belupo has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Itsuki Urata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Antonio Jakir is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Slaven Belupo have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Igor Leschuk 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Fernández 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 easiest signature of my career.” Dejan Glavica and Slaven Belupo agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market31 May 2027
Antonio Jakir returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Krušelj is on 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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
21 goals in 21 games at Karlovac 1919 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slaven Belupo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Slaven Belupo told Josip Mitrović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutFilip Mažar has become a man the manager trusts
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Fernández 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 Filip Jović is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Jović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Slaven Belupo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
Gaoussou Diarra 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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Tomislav Božić plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Slaven Belupo the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Gaoussou Diarra 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 Roberto Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
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 Antonio Marin has written the date down.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
“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 Slaven Belupo know it.
Igor Leschuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I watch every Slaven Belupo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Slaven Belupo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonio Marin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slaven Belupo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Igor Leschuk 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 Roberto Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Dabro knocks on the manager's door
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 Arnór Gauti Jónsson is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slaven Belupo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slaven Belupo, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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 Slaven Belupo has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Gaoussou Diarra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Fernández 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 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 Slaven Belupo know it.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Slaven Belupo argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Krušelj is on it.
Gaoussou Diarra 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slaven Belupo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Slaven Belupo argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Slaven Belupo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Slaven Belupo will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 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 Marko Dabro has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Fernández 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 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 Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Slaven Belupo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Fernández 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihail Caimacov 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 Filip Jović is on 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 Slaven Belupo would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slaven Belupo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
“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 that would have taken Marko Dabro to Lokomotiva Zagreb has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Slaven Belupo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiva Zagreb waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slaven Belupo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
21 goals in 21 games at Karlovac 1919 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slaven Belupo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Slaven Belupo 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Antun Marković reports back to Slaven Belupo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The phone has started ringing about Arnór Gauti Jónsson again, and this time the name on the line is Hrvace. Slaven Belupo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Fernández 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 Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Varteks for Filip Mažar 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.
Gaoussou Diarra 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.
Slaven Belupo have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Slaven Belupo have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Alen Grgić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Slaven Belupo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Filip Mažar has come up in conversations Slaven Belupo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Slaven Belupo have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slaven Belupo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lucko had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slaven Belupo, another week without a signature from Mihail Caimacov.
Something was said to Josip Mitrović and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slaven Belupo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Slaven Belupo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sesvete have kept their man, and Slaven Belupo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Ivan Cvetko again, and this time the name on the line is Lucko. Slaven Belupo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slaven Belupo 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 Slaven Belupo can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slaven Belupo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slaven Belupo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Slaven Belupo 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.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Dabro knocks on the manager's door