There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Noah Leembruggen is living that version at NK Varazdin, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frane Maglica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksa Latković signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Novak Tepšić has written the date down.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Rob Stoop arrives at NK Varazdin with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. NK Varazdin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Robby McCrorie 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 David Puclin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at NK Varazdin says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mario Mladenovski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Robby McCrorie 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 David Puclin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Fran Ivan Marić has come up in conversations NK Varazdin were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
6 goals in 21 games at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at NK Varazdin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Roberto Punčec has written the date down.
Matej Vuk 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martin Petkov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivica Sucic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Niko Orsic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcelo Rebic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stipe Jurić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Puclin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksa Latković signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Petar Bočkaj 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
David Puclin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slaven Belupo have kept their man, and NK Varazdin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Leyton Orient 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.
NK Varazdin have made the call to Slaven Belupo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
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.
Petar Bočkaj 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Varazdin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 NK Varazdin would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at NK Varazdin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Puclin 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filip Jagarčec is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Puclin 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 Roberto Punčec trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksa Latković signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at NK Varazdin says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
Robby McCrorie 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Luka Škaričić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Varazdin. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Varazdin 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 David Puclin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at NK Varazdin would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dario Stanisic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
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 NK Varazdin would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at NK Varazdin pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Dario Stanisic could afford to be generous.
Lokomotiva Zagreb next, and one man in the NK Varazdin dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Petar Bočkaj 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dario Stanisic after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. NK Varazdin will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutMario Marina knocks on the manager's door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Josip Silić: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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 NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dario Stanisic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dinamo Zagreb in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dario Stanisic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. NK Varazdin have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Robby McCrorie signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑1 to Hajduk Split, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Dario Stanisic to a room that had heard them before.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Matej Vuk’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NK Varazdin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matej Vuk signs something — a contract at NK Varazdin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Hajduk Split.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Matej Vuk 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 point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Half the programme played, position 8, 6 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It needed Matej Vuk to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Slaven Belupo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dario Stanisic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Matej Vuk 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 watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roberto Punčec, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Dario Stanisic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stipe Jurić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 10 and 2 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around NK Varazdin are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at NK Varazdin 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at LNZ is saying, and nobody at NK Varazdin is enjoying the guessing.
Robby McCrorie 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dario Stanisic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Milan Juranovic is living that version at NK Varazdin, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.3M has been paid because Milan Juranovic is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The deal with LNZ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Varazdin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Milan Juranovic from Zadar for $1.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
NK Osijek arrived with $3.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Iuri Tavares has gone, the accounts have $3.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
NK Varazdin asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$3.7M on the table at HNK Rijeka. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.6M was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Robby McCrorie 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one NK Varazdin will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The offer from HNK Gorica for Tomislav Duvnjak 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 team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
NK Varazdin have gone to Dinamo Zagreb with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Leyton Orient keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomislav Duvnjak and NK Varazdin agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The offer went to Slaven Belupo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcelo Colak is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
0‑3 to HNK Rijeka, 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.
Tomislav Duvnjak 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at NK Varazdin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Marina 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.