Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Luke Baartman obliged against Slovacko. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Slavia Prague.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Slavia Prague are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luke Baartman 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.
18 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.
“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.
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.
Michal Kohút 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.
0‑1 to Jablonec, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Oct 2027
David Jurásek 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.
26 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.
Michal Kohút 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 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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.
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Slavia Prague.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomas Brabec kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
“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.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Slavia Prague now know that too.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Danijel Kolarić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slavia Prague needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sahmkou Camara has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Jurásek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
Beaten 0‑2 by Sparta Prague in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
52 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Paar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Prague the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Jurásek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Flora 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.
60 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.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Sparta Prague on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sahmkou Camara
67 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.
“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.
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.
Banik Ostrava left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Sep 2027
David Jurásek 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 40 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
75 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 29 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
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 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
David Jurásek 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Slavia Prague will try not to make too much of it.
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.
84 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Petrolul Ploiești had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There are signings and there are signings that come with a second helping of satisfaction. Slavia Prague have taken Joao Grimaldo from a club they measure themselves against, and the pleasure of that will outlast the transfer window.
“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 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.
Michal Kohút 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
91 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Petrolul Ploiești have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Moses. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
Vasil Kušej 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.
Zbrojovka Brno pay $380.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Slavia Prague asked and Pardubice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
99 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.
“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.
Hradec Králové pay $580.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Jurásek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
106 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.
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.
113 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.
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.
The offer from Hermannstadt for David Moses 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.
Viktoria Plzen paid $960.0K and Slavia Prague took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
6 matches without defeat, and then Slovan Liberec. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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.
Ivan Schranz damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
“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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ondřej Kolář had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
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 offer from Rapid Bucharest for Sahmkou Camara 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 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 name of Tomáš Holeš has come up in conversations Slavia Prague were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
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.
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
Ivan Schranz 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 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutIvan Schranz has become a man the manager trusts
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. David Moses had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Black Aces for Youssoupha Mbodji 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 and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz 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.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Zbrojovka Brno will make the call about Ondřej Kolář this week. Slavia Prague have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Timothy Ouma had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The fee is $1.5M, 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.
Vasil Kušej 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: Podbrezova have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dominik Javorček. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mikuláš Konečný and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Oston O'runov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutVasil Kušej asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ange N'Guessan
The dugoutMichal Kohút has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Michal Sadílek is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lukáš Provod signs something — a contract at Slavia Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 offer from FCI Levadia for Vladimir Perišić 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.
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.
At 17 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.
Matyáš Tomek has left for Artis Brno in a $240.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Ivan Schranz 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Slavia Prague are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Moses knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metaloglobus Bucharest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Prague is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” MSK Zilina had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Viktoria Žižkov moved on, Izuchukwu Okonkwo reports back to Slavia Prague, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ales Sykora is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Kohút is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The offer from Bohemians 1905 for David Zima 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 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 have gone to Zbrojovka Brno 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovacko have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Izuchukwu Okonkwo has come up in conversations Slavia Prague were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Izuchukwu Okonkwo and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Denis Višinský has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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 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.
Denis Višinský 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Michal Kohút 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.
23 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.
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 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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Vasil Kušej’s exile
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 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 17 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 Ivan Schranz is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakub Markovič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 May 2027
Elmedin Rama 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Lukáš Provod has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Slavia Prague and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
In brief
SquadDavid Zima is training like a man with a point to make
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8 graduates, from a department now rated 15 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Štěpán Chaloupek’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad17 May 2027
Lukáš Provod is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
BoardroomThe Slavia Prague board put their names to it
41Edition
The Slavia Prague Gazette
10 May 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad10 May 2027
Ivan Schranz 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 did not go to Viktoria Žižkov to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slavia Prague and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
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 Kohút is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Schranz signs something — a contract at Slavia Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ange N'Guessan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Michal Kohút 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 watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bohemians 1905 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 Michal Sadílek is on it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ange N'Guessan, and the manager let it.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matyáš Tomek 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.
7 goals in 28 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lukáš Provod signs something — a contract at Slavia Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
22 appearances at Chrudim and the goals keep coming. Slavia Prague are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch3 May 2027
Nazar Domchak’s loan is measured in nothing happening
6 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Zlate Moravce. 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.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz 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 did not go to Spartak Trnava to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slavia Prague and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz 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.
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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Štěpán Chaloupek’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Stanek 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 Sima is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michal Stanek is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladimir Perišić and Slavia Prague agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David Jurásek 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 24 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.
“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 9 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.
18 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.
At 22 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.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Ivan Schranz 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pavel 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. Jiri Barak 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. Vladimir Provod 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. Ales Sykora 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.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spartak Trnava runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutIvan Schranz has become a man the manager trusts
27 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.
Michal Kohút and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elmedin Rama 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.
With 6 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abel Cedergren trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
35 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.
The offer from IFK Värnamo for Denis Višinský 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.
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.
Elmedin Rama was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michal Sadílek and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Ivan Schranz 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.
7 goals in 28 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matyáš Tomek. 2‑1 against Karviná, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
26 appearances and 7 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Marked 8.06 — 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 dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Jakub Markovič
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Metalist had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Ivan Schranz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Michal 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Martin Gjorgievski had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
Slavia Prague are 2 in the table and the town has noticed
54 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz 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.
Abel Cedergren 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.05 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. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Michal Kohút 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 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Add another name to the list: Shakhtar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lukáš Provod. The answer from Slavia Prague has not changed — yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Slavia Prague asked and Pardubice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Transfer targetsThe window shuts on the Filip Vaško deal
Position 2, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Mamelodi Sundowns for David Moses 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.2M has been paid because Martin Gjorgievski is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martin Gjorgievski has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karviná have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jakub Markovič will call it something else in private.
The offer from Trabzonspor for Lukáš Provod 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 phone has started ringing about David Moses again, and this time the name on the line is Mamelodi Sundowns. Slavia Prague are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zbrojovka Brno have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Patrik Horváth has agreed terms with Prostějov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Michal Kohút 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.
400 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I 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.
Persepolis did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.7M for Oston O'runov, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Slavia Prague asked and Slovacko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Slavia Prague has been clear about where David Moses stands, which is more than many ever get.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Slavia Prague have had the benefit of it.
Slavia Prague have gone to Persepolis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$1.4M on the table at Mlada Boleslav. 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 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.
“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.
0‑3 to Pardubice, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 16 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Position 3, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jakub Kolísek is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
The unbeaten run reaches 16. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Matyáš Tomek, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
10 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ivan Schranz 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomas Brabec kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Marked 7.67 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz 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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Slovan Liberec 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Michal Sadílek scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
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 goals inside twenty minutes with Lukáš Provod in the middle of it, and Slovan Liberec unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Sigma Olomouc next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Position 3, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Half the programme played, position 3, 30 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ivan Schranz 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Youssoupha Sanyang 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.
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 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.
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.
Something was said to Danijel Šturm and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mlada Boleslav in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ivan Schranz 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.
8 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.
With 4 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.
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.
Position 3, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
A mark of 7.64 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.
“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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ange N'Guessan scored, was marked 7.23, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Slavia Prague did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 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.
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Tomas Brabec chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dukla Prague in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
21 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vladimir Perišić is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ivan Schranz 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Lukáš Provod
“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.
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. Jakub Kolísek is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Michal Kohút is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tomáš Holeš’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slavia Prague needing him to play as if none of it matters.
At 22 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.
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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Slavia Prague prefer.
Derby days make names, and Ivan Schranz made his against Sparta Prague. 3‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
“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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Slavia Prague have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ivan Schranz 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 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tomas Brabec on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Epicentr had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Ivan Schranz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Sparta Prague on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomas Brabec kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tomas Brabec on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” MFK Michalovce had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 23 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Bukhara for Izuchukwu Okonkwo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ivan Schranz 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Banik Ostrava next, and one man in the Slavia Prague dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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.
Slavia Prague asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Teplice paid $97.0K and Slavia Prague took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ivan Schranz 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mojmír Chytil was one of the reasons people came, and $5.9M does not replace that by itself.
Slavia Prague asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Divine Teah reports back to Slavia Prague with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Daniel Šmiga 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
Player ratingsLukáš Provod was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“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.
Banik Ostrava did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.3M for Michal Kohút, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
He is going to Sunderland, the club has $13.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Banik Ostrava is saying, and nobody at Slavia Prague is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Jablonec, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Slavia Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Schranz 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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Slavia Prague dressing room in a hurry
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slavia Prague have done the hard part with Banik Ostrava, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Chrudim for Tomáš Vlček 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 shirt still fits. Denis Višinský is back at Slavia Prague, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The phone has started ringing about Mojmír Chytil again, and this time the name on the line is PAOK. Slavia Prague are listening politely and promising nothing.
Daniel Šmiga 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.
The offer from MSK Zilina for Tomáš Chorý 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Izuchukwu Okonkwo did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Divine Teah 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.