4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
A brace, and Vasil Kušej takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vasil Kušej provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Sportivo Luqueno for Matěj Hadaš was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
1 for Adam Obert, marked 7.98, 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.
Saša Lukić 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 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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
0‑2 against Club Brugge, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Saša Lukić 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 ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Obert 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people suddenly very careful about their wording. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer from Zulia for Aleko Basiladze 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.
1‑0 against Trabzonspor, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Saša Lukić 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.
A 1‑0 win over Slovan Liberec, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Adam Obert 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Slavia Prague will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
In brief
The dugoutLukáš Provod has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tomáš Ladra
Saša Lukić 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 win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Jurásek 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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Oleh Ocheretko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A brace, and Mojmír Chytil takes the afternoon — 9.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mojmír Chytil provided it, and the 9.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2‑3 away to the standard of Bayern Munich. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adam Obert has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuel Adegbenro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Slavia Prague will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Saša Lukić 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slavia Prague can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Saša Lukić 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.
Jablonec will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
8 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Slavia Prague will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Oleh Ocheretko at his very best
Player ratingsAleš Matějů ran the middle of the pitch — 7.91
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mojmír Chytil at his very best
2‑1 against Club Brugge, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Levi Garcia was at the centre of the description.
Bohemians 1905 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Levi Garcia decided nobody was going anywhere. Club Brugge had no time left to answer.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2‑0 against Sparta Prague, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ebenezer Akinsanmiro is living that version at Slavia Prague, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Samuel Adegbenro has agreed terms with Sparta Prague for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Saša Lukić 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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Vasil Kušej
SquadHamidou Kante falls out with a teammate over standards
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slavia Prague lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Pribram will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A brace, and Vasil Kušej takes the afternoon — 9.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vasil Kušej provided it, and the 9.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Saša Lukić 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 words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Slavia Prague and Jihlava, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
In brief
MarketAdrian Šemper wants to know where this is going
Player ratingsYuma Suzuki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Banik Ostrava will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jihlava waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Samuel Adegbenro reports back to Slavia Prague with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Slavia Prague close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 16 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Saša Lukić 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
In brief
SquadMaxim Magada is a better footballer than he was
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Saša Lukić 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torpedo-BelAZ had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Slovan Liberec will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zlin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Al-Fateh did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.0M for Adrian Šemper, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adrian Šemper is living that version at Slavia Prague, and it tends to show in the first month.
Slavia Prague have gone to Viktoria Plzen 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.
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$4.0M on the table at Al-Fateh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Slavia Prague know it.
Saša Lukić 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 20 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
“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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleko Basiladze is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Saša Lukić 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
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mojmír Chytil at his very best
Slavia Prague had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Jagiellonia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zlin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Petr Potměšil had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Samuel Adegbenro reports back to Slavia Prague with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Alexandr Bužek again, and this time the name on the line is Vitebsk. Slavia Prague are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jindřich Staněk 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.
Slavia Prague have gone to Jagiellonia 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Matěj Hadaš has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamidou Kante is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rangers International waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $2.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Viktoria Plzen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuel Adegbenro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tomáš Ladra has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
Slavia Prague asked and Venezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Saša Lukić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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
BoardroomSlavia Prague sign 10 boys into the academy
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slavia Mozyr waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Divine Teah had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer went to Viktoria Plzen 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
Slavia Prague asked and Slovan Liberec said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
David Zima was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadWords at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Oleh Ocheretko had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Arsenal did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.9M for Saša Lukić, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The fee is $5.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Viktoria Plzen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Saša Lukić has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
$2.3M was the most the club would pay and Viktoria Plzen 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Slavia Prague know it.
In brief
SquadWords at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
The dugoutLukáš Provod has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hamidou Kante
Slavia Prague had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Banik Ostrava, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Slavia Prague have gone to Viktoria Plzen 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.
$4.9M on the table at Arsenal. 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Kano Pillars for Divine Teah 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dominik Ťapaj has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
$5.7M on the table at Banik Ostrava. 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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
Slavia Prague asked and Banik Ostrava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to Viktoria Plzen 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.
Slavia Prague have gone to Slovan Liberec 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.
David Zima 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 Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
78 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Slavia Prague had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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 Slavia Prague know it.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Slavia Prague, 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
26 appearances at Pribram and the goals keep coming. Slavia Prague are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamidou Kante is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FF Jaro runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 11 games at Irtysh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slavia Prague updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutMatěj Hadaš knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Michal Sadílek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Aleš Matějů falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Slavia Prague will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Zima signs something — a contract at Slavia Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Slavia Prague would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Salim Fago Lawal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague 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.” Slavia Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Michal Sadílek 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 Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
“I did not go to Spartaks to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slavia Prague and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 38 matches say the rest.
Squad8 May 2028
Aleš Matějů 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.
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 Vasil Kušej is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Michal Sadílek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Javorček is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague, 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Aleš Matějů falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slavia Prague, and 2 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slavia Prague can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleš Matějů was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 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.” Slavia Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
David Zima 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamidou Kante 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 Vasil Kušej is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
78 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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 Slavia Prague know it.
David Zima 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Aleš Matějů falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slavia Prague, and 4 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Matějů is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
8 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Hamidou Kante falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutMojmír Chytil has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slavia Prague will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Michal Sadílek 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Aleš Matějů 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Štěpán Chaloupek and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slavia Prague, and 0 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
78 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Michal Sadílek 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
21 games away and 12 of them without conceding. Slavia Prague sent a goalkeeper out to find him some football and have been handed a selection problem instead: the man in possession of the shirt now has somebody behind him who has spent a season being picked.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Matějů is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irtysh 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atyrau waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Slavia Prague will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Barčot was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slavia Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Slavia Prague know it.
Mlada Boleslav will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 78 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A brace, and Lukáš Provod takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Provod provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maxim Magada had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
75 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $17.6M has been paid because Levi Garcia is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A brace, and Vasil Kušej takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vasil Kušej provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Levi Garcia has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Petr Potměšil had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Skonto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Slavia Prague asked and Slovan Liberec said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Slavia Prague offered $2.5M; Banik Ostrava 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.
“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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The offer from Sigma Olomouc for Denis Halinský 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.
Tomáš Holeš 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
SquadDavid Zima falls out with a teammate over standards
$17.6M on the table at Spartak Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Two goals and a mark of 9.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A brace, and Lukáš Provod takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Provod provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
$41.1M on the table at VfL Wolfsburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Slavia Prague asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Liepaja for Petr Potměšil 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.
Slavia Prague asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zlin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The chase for Salim Fago Lawal ended with $1.5M changing hands and Viktoria Plzen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Salim Fago Lawal has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oleh Ocheretko provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Slavia Prague had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banik Ostrava have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Viktoria Plzen 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
A brace, and Yuma Suzuki takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yuma Suzuki provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Slavia Prague pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Tomáš Holeš 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 Vasil Kušej, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Pancíř is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.95. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Slavia Prague.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Lukáš Provod was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.61. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
0‑0 against Athletic Bilbao, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
53 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Magada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tomáš Holeš 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slavia Prague can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Slavia Prague and Zlin in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The name of Samuel Adegbenro has come up in conversations Slavia Prague were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
0‑1 against LOSC Lille. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Barčot is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.51 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Aleko Basiladze, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.43
A mark of 8.43 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Tomáš Holeš 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 Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aleko Basiladze 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oleh Ocheretko. 1‑0 against Slovan Liberec, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadWords at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
The match ball belongs to Oleh Ocheretko, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Petr Potměšil, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.84
A mark of 8.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Magada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Slavia Prague and Viktoria Plzen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
1‑0 against Borussia Dortmund, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Vasil Kušej was at the centre of the description.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.84. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jindřich Staněk, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Matějů is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Matějů is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.39 — 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.
1‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Slavia Prague came through the finding-out well against Borussia Dortmund.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timothy Ouma. 3‑1 against Teplice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Zbrojovka Brno will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tomáš Holeš 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 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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Barčot 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.
Jablonec will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ange N'Guessan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slavia Prague can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
0‑3 against Athletic Bilbao. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Barčot 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.
24 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Tomáš Holeš 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 Jakub Markovič, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Aleš Matějů 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
11 new faces, and Slavia Prague 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.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spartaks runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
1‑1 against LOSC Lille, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mojmír Chytil was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Slavia Prague will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mojmír Chytil and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
15 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Prague 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 Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Lukáš Provod was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Lukáš Provod in the middle of it, and Jihlava unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Oleh Ocheretko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Slavia Prague have 14 straight wins of it.
Match4 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
13 on the bounce on the road for Slavia Prague. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Slavia Prague ran out of time with Viking. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Slavia Prague 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
With 8 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
David Barčot 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.
13 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Dukla Prague will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Vasil Kušej takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vasil Kušej provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Slavia Prague offered $2.2M; Venezia 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.
Tomáš Holeš 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 Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
12 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
21 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
12 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maxim Magada had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
In brief
Player ratingsPetr Potměšil, 19, steals the show — 8.09
10 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.42 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Prague can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Hatayspor for Samuel Adegbenro 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.
David Zima 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.
11 on the bounce on the road for Slavia Prague. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Slavia Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Slovacko, and it could have been more.
Match24 Jul 2027
Another one collected away from home
10 on the bounce on the road for Slavia Prague. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Samuel Adegbenro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.96, 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Bryan Ouanda had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Zlate Moravce for Maxim Magada was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Samuel Adegbenro has come up in conversations Slavia Prague were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Akinkunmi Amoo has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleš Matějů 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.
16 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hamidou Kante
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Aduana Stars for Divine Teah was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I 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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Hamidou Kante falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Tomáš Holeš 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 season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Slavia Prague know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
27 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Slavia Prague now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
In brief
The dugoutVasil Kušej asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zlin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Hatayspor for Akinkunmi Amoo 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.
Slavia Prague offered $1.5M; Zbrojovka Brno 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.
Tomáš Holeš 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 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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
15 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Al-Hazem. 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yuma Suzuki has, at Slavia Prague, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Slavia Prague have paid $1.0M for Yuma Suzuki, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Slavia Prague offered $1.5M; Viktoria Plzen 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleko Basiladze is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Michal Sadílek is on it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Youssoupha Sanyang had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The chase for Aleko Basiladze ended with $2.0M changing hands and Slovan Liberec out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Slavia Prague offered $1.7M; Banik Ostrava 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aleko Basiladze is living that version at Slavia Prague, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 20 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.
The name of Samuel Adegbenro has come up in conversations Slavia Prague were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer went to Slovan Liberec 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.
$1.6M on the table at Banik Ostrava. 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. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Kashima Antlers 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.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Slavia Prague had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin Pancíř is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Jakub Markovič, on 23 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like it.
24 appearances at Al-Hazem and the goals have stopped going in. Slavia Prague lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
12 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Slavia Prague now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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
MarketNazar Domchak returns from a loan that taught him nothing
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match19 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
10 on the bounce on the road for Slavia Prague. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slavia Prague, and 2 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
David Barčot was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad17 May 2027
Maxim Magada 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 been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mojmír Chytil signs something — a contract at Slavia Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slavia Prague lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
77 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martin Stanek is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Filip Krejci 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. David Coufal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Slavia Prague, and 12 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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 words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Slavia Prague know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
24 appearances at Al-Hazem and the goals have stopped going in. Slavia Prague lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slavia Prague, and 3 appearances in 14 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 Michal Sadílek is on it.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Slavia Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AS Trencin 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 Mojmír Chytil is on it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Maxim Magada 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Prague, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague 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 Ivan Schranz is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danijel Šturm will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tomas Vydra 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vaclav Vydra 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. Tomas Krejci is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Slavia Prague, and 2 appearances in 32 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 Lukáš Provod is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Magada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tomáš Holeš 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 is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
15 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Al-Hazem. 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.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Maxim Magada falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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 Slavia Prague, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
David Barčot was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Magada 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.
77 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin Pancíř is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 Slavia Prague, and 2 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tomáš Holeš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Maxim Magada 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Tomáš Holeš 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.
15 shut-outs in 24 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Jindřich Staněk has been having a lot of them.
Nobody at Slavia Prague 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 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 Slavia Prague know it.
“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 Slavia Prague, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Magada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Slavia Prague would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Prague, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Lukáš Provod obliged against Jablonec. 5‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Slavia Prague.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Loan watchJindřich Staněk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danijel Šturm will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tomáš Holeš 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: Isloch have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ange N'Guessan. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
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. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
35 goals in 22 games at Slovan Liberec — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slavia Prague updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
10 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Maxim Magada did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
20 appearances at Al-Hazem and the goals have stopped going in. Slavia Prague lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zlin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Lukáš Provod takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Provod provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Slavia Prague 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.
Slavia Prague offered $1.5M; Jablonec 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.
“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 Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.