There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Vinković provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Varteks know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Varteks 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 Bruno Međimorec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 18 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Leković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 18 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Boris Vlasic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Varteks 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 Varteks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Nobody at Varteks will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Varteks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Varteks. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Caio Cruz
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Varteks would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Anes Huskić scored in the 86th minute, Uljanik Pula had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Varteks took the lot.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Anes Huskić did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Međimorec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marin Kasalo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Bruno Međimorec 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 Nikola Leković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
In brief
Boardroom112% of the income goes out in wages at Varteks
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Caio Cruz
13Edition
The Varteks Post
26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondentUneasy
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Lukas Murica, 18, 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 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Bruno Međimorec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caio Cruz 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.
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Boris Vlasic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Varteks dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Zvonko Pamić
At 18 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.
Zvonko Pamić 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Varteks can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Međimorec 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.
At 18 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Varteks told Anes Huskić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Zvonko Pamić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Caio Cruz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Josip Juranovic 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
19 new faces, and Varteks 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Varteks told Andrej Mićić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Uskok in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Varteks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Varteks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bruno Međimorec 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 Caio Cruz 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Hrvatski Dragovoljac? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutErnis Qestaj has become a man the manager trusts
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Varteks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Zvonko Pamić 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac next, and one man in the Varteks dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Anes Huskić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Zvonko Pamić 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Varteks and Bjelovar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Varteks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bruno Međimorec 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Caio Cruz 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Grobnican leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Boris Vlasic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Varteks dressing room was either.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Varteks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 31 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Varteks 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Varteks 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. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Varteks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zvonko Pamić 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 are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Varteks 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 words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Varteks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zvonko Pamić 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Caio Cruz 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.
1‑4 against Rudes, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Varteks are taken apart by Rudes — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Varteks have done the hard part with HNK Vukovar 1991, 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 Varteks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Zvonko Pamić 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Luka Matković has, at Varteks, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Varteks have done the hard part with HNK Rijeka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zvonko Pamić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Varteks were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Varteks, another week without a signature from Bruno Međimorec.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bruno Međimorec is living that version at Varteks, and it tends to show in the first month.
Everything agreed with Istra 1961, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Varteks and Lucko, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Livio Legac 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 86 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Varteks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Boris Vlasic after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.