0‑0 against Famalicao, 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.
Tomáš Koubek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tomáš Vaclík will call it something else in private.
Something was said to Matěj Mikulenka and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Tomáš Vaclík
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Tomáš Koubek 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej 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.
17 appearances at MFK Ruzomberok and the goals have stopped going in. Slovan Liberec lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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; Slovan Liberec are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dominik Kúdelčík and Slovan Liberec agree another 4 years.
Tomáš Koubek 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 Jan Mikula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Stanislav Sykora left the room before anybody could ask which.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Matyáš Vojta will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Slovan Liberec escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
0‑1 against Spartak Moscow. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slovan Liberec have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Spartak Moscow; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Liberec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 shut-outs in 15 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ivan Krajčírik has been having a lot of them.
Pribram will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slovan Liberec were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Slovan Liberec and Pribram, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Liberec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Vasil Kušej on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Slovan Liberec and Jihlava.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jan Mikula 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.
11 clean sheets from 12 appearances at MFK Ruzomberok. 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Liberec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dominik Kúdelčík is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrik Vydra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 appearances at MFK Ruzomberok and the goals have stopped going in. Slovan Liberec lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vasil Kušej is on it.
4‑1. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Zlin will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Tomáš Koubek 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Vasil Kušej had Slovan Liberec level again within 4 minutes, and Sigma Olomouc never got to play with a lead at all.
Chances created: 12. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
16 new faces, and Slovan Liberec 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.
4‑1 against Famalicao, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Tomáš Koubek 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukáš Mašek 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.
Slovan Liberec offered $200.0K; Zlin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gornik Zabrze have kept their man, and Slovan Liberec go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matyáš Vojta 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ales Coufal 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. Jan Schick 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.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Mikula is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Qëndrim Zyba, marked 7.50, 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Slovan Liberec until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Bohemians 1905 wanted more than $710.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Matyáš Vojta 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Slovan Liberec and Slovacko, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Slovan Liberec had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Asteras, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Zbrojovka Brno wanted more than $550.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Liberec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asteras have kept their man, and Slovan Liberec go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.30, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 Slovan Liberec, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slovan Liberec have done the hard part with Asteras, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer went to Zbrojovka Brno 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bohemians 1905 have kept their man, and Slovan Liberec go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Slovan Liberec have paid $2.7M for Matyáš Vojta, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Slovan Liberec have gone to Sparta Prague 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 deal with Sparta Prague is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slovan Liberec this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$25.0K 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
SquadWords at Slovan Liberec 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. Matěj Mikulenka had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
4‑0, and Vasil Kušej took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Slovan Liberec tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$2.7M settles it between the clubs for Matyáš Vojta
Sparta Prague have accepted the money. What Slovan Liberec do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Astra is saying, and nobody at Slovan Liberec is enjoying the guessing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lukáš Masopust and Slovan Liberec agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
$350.0K on the table at Slovacko. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Tomáš Koubek 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.
1‑6 against Slavia Prague, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Slovan Liberec and Slavia Prague in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Slovan Liberec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Kušej 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.