The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Stará Ľubovňa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Pečarka 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
156% of the income goes out in wages at Stará Ľubovňa
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Samuel Greško 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.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Stará Ľubovňa can tell you which week it ends in.
Adrián Slančík 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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.” Stefan Pekarik chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adrián Slančík’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Stará Ľubovňa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Greško asks for a word with the manager
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samuel Greško is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Stará Ľubovňa can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dávid Bordáč was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Giuliano Antonio Marek 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
26 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stará Ľubovňa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Stará Ľubovňa is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 Stará Ľubovňa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Stará Ľubovňa will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Adrián Slančík 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 Dávid Bordáč was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Stará Ľubovňa are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Adrián Mojžiš 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.
Stará Ľubovňa asked and MFK Skalica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Dávid Bordáč 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukáš Jendrek 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stará Ľubovňa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dávid Kmeťo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Stefan Pekarik after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stará Ľubovňa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 37 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stará Ľubovňa have done the hard part with MFK Ruzomberok, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stará Ľubovňa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Stará Ľubovňa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dávid Bordáč 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
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Adrián Slančík
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stará Ľubovňa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stará Ľubovňa have done the hard part with FC Košice, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Stará Ľubovňa asked and AS Trencin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Stará Ľubovňa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dávid Bordáč 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.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stará Ľubovňa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Stará Ľubovňa have done the hard part with Malženice, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Adrián Mojžiš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Stará Ľubovňa asked and MFK Skalica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
21 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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stará Ľubovňa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Stará Ľubovňa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dávid Bordáč is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Stará Ľubovňa were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Stará Ľubovňa know which stage they are at.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adrián Slančík is living that version at Stará Ľubovňa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deal with DAC Dunajska Streda 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Adrián Slančík is a Stará Ľubovňa player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The shirt still fits. Martin Kušnír is back at Stará Ľubovňa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Adrián Slančík 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.
Stará Ľubovňa asked and MFK Ruzomberok said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dávid Bordáč 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dominik Šnajder and Stará Ľubovňa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Stará Ľubovňa have made the call to DAC Dunajska Streda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.