Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mikuláš Kubný reports back to Táborsko with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Táborsko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Pribram 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Táborsko asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Samuel Šimek 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Filip Žák 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.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
The deal with Ústí nad Labem 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slovacko keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mlada Boleslav pay $860.0K, 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.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ústí nad Labem have kept their man, and Táborsko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Jason Noslin 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.
Jiří Hrubeš 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.
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
11 new faces, and Táborsko are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I watch every Táborsko game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Karviná runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jason Noslin 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Táborsko people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Sigma Olomouc for Lukáš Matějka 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Seun Ogunribide will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Táborsko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Táborsko 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Jason Noslin 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 doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Táborsko know which stage they are at.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Táborsko are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Táborsko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is going to Viktoria Plzen, the club has $1.3M 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.
The phone has started ringing about Mikuláš Kubný again, and this time the name on the line is Vlašim. Táborsko are listening politely and promising nothing.
The deal with Sigma Olomouc 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.
Viktoria Plzen pay $1.3M, 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.
Lukáš Havel 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Táborsko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vlašim is saying, and nobody at Táborsko is enjoying the guessing.
Lukáš Matějka 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.
$180.0K was the most the club would pay and Slovacko 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcin Szpakowski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Táborsko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Banik Ostrava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pribram keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$190.0K on the table at Sparta Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Táborsko will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Táborsko have done the hard part with Pribram, 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Boaz Plantinga is living that version at Táborsko, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jan Derka has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Táborsko have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Táborsko asked and Pribram said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Žák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
This is not rotation. Loïc Masscho has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Táborsko is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
Filip Žák falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikuláš Kubný trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Táborsko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Táborsko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Šipčić 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.
4 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Mikuláš Kubný has been having a lot of them.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Táborsko would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Táborsko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Samuel Šigut 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 Nikola Šipčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Žák trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Filip Žák 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.
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
12 new faces, and Táborsko 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.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Šipčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Táborsko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Šipčić 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.
Adriano Delphis is 20, and Táborsko have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukáš Havel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Táborsko will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Táborsko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Táborsko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Filip Žák falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Táborsko will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 Táborsko, 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcin Szpakowski has just signed for Táborsko, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Šipčić 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.
12 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.
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.
Lukáš Havel 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 Nikola Šipčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Matěj Hýbl 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.
Luke O'Donnell is 20, and Táborsko have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Nikola Šipčić 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 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Táborsko will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Táborsko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Álvaro Merencio has, at Táborsko, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Šipčić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Táborsko told Jiří Panoš something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Šťovíček trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Táborsko 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. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Táborsko, 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Žák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Táborsko told Jakub Trefil something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
5 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Lukáš Havel 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. Sebastien Koffi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Jeřábek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jiří Hrubeš and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 2‑3 Matej Stanek left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukáš Matějka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsJiří Hrubeš beats them one at a time
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Táborsko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lukáš Havel has agreed terms with Artis Brno for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Táborsko pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.” Matej Stanek chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
SquadA Táborsko teenager takes the young player award
Jiří Panoš, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Lukáš Havel 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jiří Panoš. 2‑0 against Banik Ostrava B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Filip Žák 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Táborsko pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutJan Šťovíček dropped after a run of poor form
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Táborsko will try again when the window opens; Vlašim may not be selling by then.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Šťovíček, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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 deal with Vlašim 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.
Samuel Šigut 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 Jan 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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.
Táborsko asked and Mlada Boleslav said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Táborsko have made the call to Besa Kavajë. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Petr Kaulfus.
Something was said to Petr Kaulfus and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Dukla Prague for Lukáš Havel 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Táborsko asked and Nasarawa United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Žák 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 goal that put Viktoria Žižkov ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Táborsko equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matěj Hýbl
Lukáš Havel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Táborsko asked and Banik Ostrava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lukáš Havel will call it something else in private.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nasarawa United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Sigma Olomouc, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Táborsko 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. Lukáš Mikulaj 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
8 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.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Táborsko asked and Artis Brno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko 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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Matěj Hýbl
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑5 to Artis Brno, 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.
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.
Nikola Šipčić 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Táborsko and Artis Brno in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Žák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5 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.
Samuel Šigut 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 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Filip Žák 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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
“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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Samuel Šigut is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Táborsko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Žák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Táborsko had all but put away. Pribram will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukáš Havel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
Samuel Šigut 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: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Filip Žák 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.
Position 12, 16 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Táborsko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 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.
Jihlava next, and one man in the Táborsko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Táborsko would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Táborsko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The medical room confirms 47 days on the sidelines for Loïc Masscho, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Samuel Šigut was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
Minute 93, against Chrudim, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matej Stanek after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Paul Ndubuisi 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.
Three points for Táborsko, 1‑0 the final word against Ústí nad Labem in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Žák 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 words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Táborsko may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Matěj Radosta takes the afternoon — 8.08
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matěj Radosta provided it, and the 8.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Samuel Šigut was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Samuel Šigut was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
The dugoutJan Šťovíček knocks on the manager's door
64Edition
The Táborsko Courier
18 Oct 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad18 Oct 2027
Jan Šťovíček damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Vlašim had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Táborsko did not stop to explain themselves.
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Vlašim were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Samuel Šigut and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Táborsko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
8 new faces, and Táborsko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Šipčić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Seun Ogunribide.
Vlašim next, and one man in the Táborsko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Šigut signs something — a contract at Táborsko or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Jan Šťovíček damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matej Stanek after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Matěj Hýbl
Jan Šťovíček damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Viktoria Žižkov left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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.
200 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.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Táborsko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Samuel Šigut 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.
This is not rotation. Loïc Masscho has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Táborsko is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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.
Táborsko asked and Besa Kavajë said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
8 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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.
Táborsko asked and Flora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 ratings13 Sep 2027
Samuel Šigut was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
10 new faces, and Táborsko 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matej Stanek after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Táborsko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sebastien Koffi has just signed for Táborsko, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MFK Ruzomberok have kept their man, and Táborsko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Remo Stars 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.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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.
Teplice go through and Táborsko go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
The offer from Pribram for Ondřej Bláha 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 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.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The name of Ondřej Bláha has come up in conversations Táborsko were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Táborsko asked and Sandefjord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Táborsko had all but put away. Artis Brno will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Táborsko has been clear about where Michal Skwarczek stands, which is more than many ever get.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutLukáš Matějka asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Matej Stanek on the draw
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Táborsko may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
An order from above at Táborsko: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Samuel Šigut 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 enquiry everybody at Táborsko was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Táborsko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zlin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Patrik Vydra 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Táborsko asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petr Coufal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Loïc Masscho 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
Transfer targetsA loan move for Théo Borne is in the works
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Táborsko
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Táborsko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Banik Ostrava, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The phone has started ringing about Roman Holiš again, and this time the name on the line is Pribram. Táborsko are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Táborsko asked and Dinamo Bucharest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Karel Stanek for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Táborsko will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
Táborsko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sparta Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Everything agreed with Panathinaikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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; Táborsko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Táborsko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Samuel Šigut.
5 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Táborsko know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ondřej Bláha
The clubs have shaken hands with Sparta Prague; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Samuel Šigut and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Táborsko asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 James Bello has written the date down.
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Matěj Hýbl.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Samuel Šigut 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 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.
Táborsko asked and Opava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Táborsko has been clear about where Roman Holiš stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Táborsko no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Lukáš Matějka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Táborsko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jan Šťovíček signs something — a contract at Táborsko or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Jeřábek 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Táborsko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Samuel Šigut 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 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 19 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Táborsko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Táborsko, 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Táborsko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch3 May 2027
Mikuláš Kubný’s loan is measured in nothing happening
9 clean sheets from 13 appearances at FC Bihor Oradea. 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.
Richard Sedláček 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 Michal Jeřábek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
Mikuláš Kubný’s loan is measured in nothing happening
8 clean sheets from 12 appearances at FC Bihor Oradea. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The 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 appearances at FC Bihor Oradea and the goals have stopped going in. Táborsko lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Michal Skwarczek.
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Samuel Šigut’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
Mikuláš Kubný’s loan is measured in nothing happening
6 clean sheets from 10 appearances at FC Bihor Oradea. 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakub Hora trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Táborsko will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Lukáš Matějka 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 Michal Jeřábek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Táborsko is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Godwin 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.
Samuel Šigut 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 Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Žák 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.
8 appearances at FC Bihor Oradea and the goals have stopped going in. Táborsko lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petr Kaulfus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukáš Matějka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Táborsko would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Táborsko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Samuel Šigut.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Jihlava spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and James Bello takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. James Bello provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Táborsko can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Richard Sedláček 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Táborsko can tell you which week it ends in.
Samuel Šigut and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petr Kaulfus 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matej Stanek after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutMatěj Hýbl dropped after a run of poor form
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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Michal Jeřábek will call it something else in private.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Táborsko are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Šimek, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Matej Stanek was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Táborsko dressing room was either.
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Táborsko can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Šigut was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Táborsko asked and Bohemians 1905 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Táborsko will try not to make too much of it.
The offer from Metalist for Lukáš Matějka 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Táborsko close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Táborsko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zlin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Táborsko have done the hard part with Teplice, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko 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. Dukla Prague have kept their man, and Táborsko 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 Petr Kaulfus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 8‑1 against Slavia Prague B, and it could have been more.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A brace, and Lukáš Matějka takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Matějka provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Jan Zíka, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.44
A mark of 8.44 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Petr Kaulfus delivers — 7.55
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Petr Kaulfus scored, was marked 7.55, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Táborsko and Slavia Prague B in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Jeřábek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Táborsko asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Táborsko will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Táborsko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Samuel Šigut 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Teplice have kept their man, and Táborsko 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 Petr Kaulfus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Táborsko is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Samuel Šigut.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jan Zíka provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from ASA Târgu Mureș for Mikuláš Kubný was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Godwin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matej Stanek after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Prostějov in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
In brief
The dugoutMarek Matocha is not enjoying his job description
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lukáš Matějka’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Táborsko.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petr Kaulfus 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Matej Stanek, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Táborsko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Samuel Šigut 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Godwin 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Petr Kaulfus falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Táborsko support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Matej Stanek, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. České Budějovice kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Táborsko will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and James Bello takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. James Bello provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jan Šťovíček
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petr Kaulfus 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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
Samuel Šigut and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukáš Havel, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petr Kaulfus 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakub Hora trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Samuel Šigut 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.
6 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.
Pribram next, and one man in the Táborsko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Táborsko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Táborsko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Táborsko the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Petr Kaulfus 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 Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Matej Stanek to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Matěj Radosta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Marked 5.27. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Emmanuel Godwin, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 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.
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.
12 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Táborsko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petr Kaulfus 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.
Samuel Šigut and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 he is 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jan Zíka. 2‑0 against Ústí nad Labem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Matej Stanek kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Michal Skwarczek’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Táborsko needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutMarek Matocha knocks on the manager’s door
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
20 new faces, and Táborsko 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Matej Stanek to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Ústí nad Labem next, and one man in the Táborsko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Táborsko is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Táborsko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mikuláš Kubný’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Táborsko needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Táborsko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Táborsko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Vlašim made Táborsko work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Lukáš Matějka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jakub Rezek is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Matej Stanek kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Samuel Šigut 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.
6 goals in one match, Lukáš Matějka on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Táborsko and Slavia Prague B.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Šigut 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.
Lukáš Matějka 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.
20 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Samuel Šigut.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
That is the business done at Táborsko 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.
Táborsko asked and Chrudim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jakub Rezek is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Táborsko, another week without a signature from Lukáš Havel.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Zapletal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Opava next, and one man in the Táborsko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutMarek Matocha asks for a word with the manager