From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Idjessi Metsoko
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak Trnava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Oct 2026
7 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Martin Vantruba: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartak Trnava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Libor Holík 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 110% of everything Spartak Trnava earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 5.63, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Idjessi Metsoko damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Libor Holík in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Michal Tomič 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Aguilar, and the manager let it.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to AS Trencin to sit and watch. I want to come back to Spartak Trnava and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
The chances came and went for Luka Khorkheli
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Spartak Trnava are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Libor Holík 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Miloš Kratochvíl was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefan Skrbo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kristián Koštrna 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Spartak Trnava will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Juan Aguilar dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Spartak Trnava
Position 12 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Spartak Trnava, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from Spartak Myjava for Lazar Stojsavljević 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Spartak Trnava are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Trnava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Kratochvíl 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
DAC Dunajska Streda left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
Marin Laušić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak Trnava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Spartak Trnava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Miloš Kratochvíl 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Michal Ďuriš gets it from the manager
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to MFK Ruzomberok, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Spartak Trnava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Moistsrapishvili, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Trnava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristián Koštrna 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Spartak Trnava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Spartak Trnava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Libor Holík 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Miloš Kratochvíl 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Žiga Frelih gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.71. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Michal Ďuriš dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with MFK Michalovce leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Podbrezova for Patrick Karhan 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Libor Holík in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Michal Tomič 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.93 on the card, and the Spartak Trnava support went home talking about one name.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Juan Aguilar has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Spartak Trnava know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
Marin Laušić is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Spartak Trnava has been clear about where Marin Laušić stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from FK Senica for Lazar Stojsavljević 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Michal Tomič commits to Spartak Trnava for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Libor Holík in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Michal Ďuriš
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match8 Aug 2026
Slovan Bratislava left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 26 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Libor Holík and Spartak Trnava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Libor Holík was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Miloš Kratochvíl 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.26 — 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.