“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and KFC Komárno waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
1 for Adrian Zeljković, marked 7.84, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Slavia Prague paid $890.0K and Viktoria Plzen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Slavia Prague paid $700.0K and Viktoria Plzen took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Spáčil 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.00, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slavia Prague waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KFC Komárno had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Jul 2029
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Spáčil 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Viktoria Plzen, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The offer from České Budějovice for Tomáš Ladra 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.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Tobiáš Pališčák again, and this time the name on the line is KFC Komárno. Viktoria Plzen are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everybody at Viktoria Plzen saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pardubice waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of David Látal has come up in conversations Viktoria Plzen were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Karel Spáčil 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mlada Boleslav waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chase for Martin Melichar ended with $190.0K changing hands and Pribram out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Karel Spáčil 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 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Sigma Olomouc for Ondřej Kolář 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 chase for Petr Mirvald ended with $420.0K changing hands and Bohemians 1905 out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Bohemians 1905 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.
$740.0K on the table at Jihlava. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Karel Spáčil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Pribram have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tom Slončík. The answer from Viktoria Plzen has not changed — yet.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Prostějov had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Viktoria Plzen have paid $2.7M for Axl Van Himbeeck, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mlada Boleslav is saying, and nobody at Viktoria Plzen is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Spáčil 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Aswan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Viktoria Plzen had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slovan Liberec, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee is $830.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Prostějov drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hradec Králové have kept their man, and Viktoria Plzen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
České Budějovice pay $1.4M, 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.
$360.0K on the table at Bohemians 1905. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen 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 Ibrahim Buhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sunderland have kept their man, and Viktoria Plzen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Slovan Liberec 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.
$1.7M on the table at Mlada Boleslav. 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 offer from Rivers United for Victor Udoh 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.
$830.0K on the table at Prostějov. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Aswan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ibrahim Buhari. The answer from Viktoria Plzen has not changed — yet.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
In brief
SquadKarel Spáčil falls out with a teammate over standards
A 1‑0 win over Banik Ostrava, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad28 May 2029
A season's verdict on Jiří Panoš: the best of his age
Viktoria Plzen have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Viktoria Plzen have had the benefit of it.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Ibrahim Buhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 May 2029
7 new faces, and Viktoria Plzen 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karel Spáčil signs something — a contract at Viktoria Plzen 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.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Karel Spáčil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viktoria Plzen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Tomáš Ladra has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
45 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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 Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomáš Holeš and Viktoria Plzen agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karel Spáčil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viktoria Plzen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every Viktoria Plzen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nyíregyháza runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Buhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Jakub Markovič is on it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karel Spáčil 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.
Zbrojovka Brno will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Matúš Malý has pre-agreed a move to Viktoria Plzen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad23 Apr 2029
10 new faces, and Viktoria Plzen 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karel Spáčil signs something — a contract at Viktoria Plzen 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 James Bello has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutOndřej Kolář knocks on the manager’s door
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Karel Spáčil 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 Viktoria Plzen is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Baboucarr Faal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viktoria Plzen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viktoria Plzen, another week without a signature from Ondřej Kolář.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Slončík will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Viktoria Plzen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen 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 Ibrahim Buhari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Viktoria Plzen, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Viktoria Plzen know it.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Viktoria Plzen know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Karel Spáčil 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 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.
4 appearances, 3 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Viktoria Plzen will have this month.
In brief
The dugoutMatěj Vydra asks for a word with the manager
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Karel Spáčil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 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.
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 Karel Spáčil is on it.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karel Spáčil signs something — a contract at Viktoria Plzen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Jakub Markovič: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 89, against Slavia Prague, 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Slončík will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Viktoria Plzen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Viktoria Plzen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Karel Spáčil 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viktoria Plzen, another week without a signature from Baboucarr Faal.
“I watch every Viktoria Plzen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nyíregyháza runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
In brief
The dugoutTomáš Holeš knocks on the manager’s door
Position 5 on 45 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karel Spáčil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Jiří Panoš, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
He is 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
“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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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.” Vladimir Darida kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Král 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 Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Viktoria Plzen 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Viktoria Plzen is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Feb 2029
David Látal falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $543.2K of what Viktoria Plzen paid for Ondřej Mihálik is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Viktoria Plzen asked and České Budějovice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything agreed with Ústí nad Labem, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Christophe Kabongo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Viktoria Plzen, and 5 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Oțelul Galați for James Bello 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 deal with Bohemians 1905 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viktoria Plzen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Viktoria Plzen asked and Hradec Králové 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Adam Kadlec falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
1 for Adrian Zeljković, marked 7.88, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Everything agreed with Waasland-Beveren, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen 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. Viktoria Žižkov have kept their man, and Viktoria Plzen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
3‑0, and Adrian Zeljković took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Viktoria Plzen tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
A brace, and Jiří Panoš takes the afternoon — 8.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jiří Panoš provided it, and the 8.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tom Slončík had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Viktoria Plzen asked and České Budějovice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Viktoria Plzen can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mimito Biai has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Viktoria Plzen have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 Viktoria Plzen has been clear about where Matěj Helebrand stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutKarel Spáčil has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Zbrojovka Brno, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobiáš Pališčák 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladimir Darida after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Something was said to Zisis Karachalios and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Karel Spáčil and Viktoria Plzen agree another 5 years.
Cheick Oumar Souaré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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.
17 appearances at Navbahor and the goals have stopped going in. Viktoria Plzen lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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 Tomáš Ladra is on 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 Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Zbrojovka Brno will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daniel Kutík has pre-agreed a move to Viktoria Plzen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
“I did not go to Spartak Trnava to sit and watch. I want to come back to Viktoria Plzen and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
0‑2 to Sigma Olomouc, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viktoria Plzen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Sparta Prague, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
SquadWords at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
David Látal 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting David Látal'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Baboucarr Faal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sparta Prague in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Viktoria Plzen
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomáš Ladra. 1‑0 against Opava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 6, 22 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Tomáš Ladra
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Tomáš Holeš, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Jiří Panoš is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Viktoria Plzen will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Matěj Vydra 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen 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.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout23 Oct 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.” Vladimir Darida chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ústí nad Labem will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Owen Moxon has pre-agreed a move to Viktoria Plzen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Adam Kadlec 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.
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobiáš Pališčák 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 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.
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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomáš Holeš and Viktoria Plzen agree another 2 years.
Ústí nad Labem will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ruggero Frosinini has pre-agreed a move to Viktoria Plzen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Jakub Markovič'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.
10 shut-outs in 17 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Viktor Baier has been having a lot of them.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Viktoria Plzen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen 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 Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomáš Holeš and Viktoria Plzen agree another 2 years.
“I watch every Viktoria Plzen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spartak Trnava runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Oct 2028
David Látal 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Šimon Gabriel
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.74 for the rest of it.
“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 Viktoria Plzen 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 Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Tomáš Ladra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vladimir Darida on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Sep 2028
David Látal 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Prostějov had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Viktoria Plzen offered $13.8M; Racing Club said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobiáš Pališčák will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Viktoria Plzen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Slovan Liberec will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ivan Mesik has pre-agreed a move to Viktoria Plzen, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Viktoria Plzen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name 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.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matěj Helebrand will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Viktoria Plzen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Viktoria Plzen 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $300.0K — a club that wants Martin Melichar enough to be asked twice.
Viktoria Plzen have gone to Chrudim 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.
In brief
Player ratingsPavel Juroška ran the middle of the pitch — 6.79
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and České Budějovice waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$10.6M on the table at Racing Club. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheick Oumar Souaré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Viktoria Plzen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Prostějov for Tomáš Ladra 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.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Pardubice; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Filip Vecheta 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
12 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
A brace, and Matěj Vydra takes the afternoon — 8.15
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matěj Vydra provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jiří Panoš did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Viktoria Plzen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Opava waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Christophe Kabongo had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and České Budějovice were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Puskas Akademia for James Bello 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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Up for the corner, and Šimon Gabriel delivers — 7.65
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Šimon Gabriel scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Chrudim moved on, Tobiáš Pališčák reports back to Viktoria Plzen, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Jakub Markovič ended with $7.0M changing hands and Slavia Prague out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Two goals and a mark of 7.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsUp for the corner, and Zisis Karachalios delivers — 7.14
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer went to Slavia Prague 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Viktoria Plzen people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Slovan Liberec for Tobiáš Pališčák 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.
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Viktoria Plzen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Viktoria Plzen and Hradec Králové have settled on $560.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheick Oumar Souaré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
8 new faces, and Viktoria Plzen 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 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.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting David Látal'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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Stefan Pirgić
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Viktoria Plzen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Skonto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from FC Argeș for Sunusi Ibrahim 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 fee is $980.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. České Budějovice drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Christophe Kabongo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
The offer from MSK Zilina for James Bello 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.
Viktoria Plzen have gone to České Budějovice 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobiáš Pališčák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with České Budějovice; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Viktoria Plzen asked and Hradec Králové said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Viktoria Plzen offered $93.0K; Prostějov said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The phone has started ringing about Sunusi Ibrahim again, and this time the name on the line is FC Argeș. Viktoria Plzen are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jiri Brabec and Viktoria Plzen agree another 3 years.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. David Látal had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Banik Ostrava pay $870.0K, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Chrudim 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.
The phone has started ringing about Dávid Krčík again, and this time the name on the line is Podbrezova. Viktoria Plzen are listening politely and promising nothing.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
Viktoria Plzen spend $3.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.1M for Petr Jaroň, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
Viktoria Plzen asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutTomáš Ladra has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting David Látal's mistake
The dugoutJiří Panoš asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Viktoria Žižkov waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Viktoria Plzen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Slavia Prague for Jiří Panoš 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.
Viktoria Plzen offered $4.9M; Opava said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $100.0K — a club that wants Lukáš Havel enough to be asked twice.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Artis Brno have kept their man, and Viktoria Plzen 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 Tobiáš Pališčák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Squad9 new faces, and Viktoria Plzen are still learning each other
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Slavia Prague 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.
$5.2M was the most the club would pay and Slavia Prague 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.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Christophe Kabongo 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 offer went to Prostějov 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.
In brief
SquadJiri Brabec is a better footballer than he was
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 20-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Viktoria Plzen will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Viktoria Plzen know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Karel Spáčil is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrian Zeljković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Viktoria Plzen know it.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
10 goals in 19 games at FC Košice — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Viktoria Plzen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viktoria Plzen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
4 goals in 8 games at Pribram — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Viktoria Plzen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 Tomáš Ladra is on it.
“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 Viktoria Plzen will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matěj Vydra and Viktoria Plzen agree another 2 years.
At 16 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Adam Kadlec 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Viktoria Plzen, another week without a signature from Patrik Hrošovský.
The dugout8 May 2028
David Látal is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Loan watch8 May 2028
Viktor Baier’s loan is measured in nothing happening
7 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Petrolul Ploiești. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Viktoria Plzen know it.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobiáš Pališčák 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Viktoria Plzen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 goals in 19 games at FC Košice — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Viktoria Plzen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Cheick Oumar Souaré is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viktoria Plzen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Viktoria Plzen would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karel Spáčil signs something — a contract at Viktoria Plzen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Matyáš Šilhavý 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jiri Brabec and Viktoria Plzen agree another 3 years.
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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting David Látal'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.
“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.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
Viktor Baier’s loan is measured in nothing happening
7 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Petrolul Ploiești. 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.
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Viktoria Plzen know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ondřej Kolář and Viktoria Plzen agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Market3 Apr 2028
Matyáš Šilhavý returns from a loan that taught him nothing
4 appearances and 1 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James Bello trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viktoria Plzen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Viktoria Plzen would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viktoria Plzen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
24 games, 7 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Viktoria Plzen now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobiáš Pališčák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Viktoria Plzen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokomotiv runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Tomáš Ladra is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Baboucarr Faal 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 Karel Spáčil signs something — a contract at Viktoria Plzen or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Viktoria Plzen would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Cheick Oumar Souaré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 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 Viktoria Plzen know it.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florian Wiegele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Position 10 on 37 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sunusi Ibrahim and Viktoria Plzen agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Viktoria Plzen had all but put away. Slovacko will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
11 goals in 23 games at Opava — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Viktoria Plzen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vladimir Darida was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Viktoria Plzen dressing room was either.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Viktoria Plzen $710.0K. Denis Vavro left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Jiří Panoš is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 dugout14 Feb 2028
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.” Vladimir Darida kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Cheick Oumar Souaré is on it.
SquadJiří Panoš is the weekend's best young player
80Edition
The Viktoria Plzen Courier
7 Feb 2028
From our football correspondentUneasy
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Jiří Panoš, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Viktoria Plzen close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Jiří Panoš is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Viktoria Plzen will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikos Giannakopoulos and Viktoria Plzen agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Jan 2028
David Látal 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
It needed Karel Spáčil to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against České Budějovice, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simão Soares has just signed for Viktoria Plzen, and for once the answer mattered.
Viktoria Plzen asked and CSKA Moscow 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 David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A brace, and Jiří Panoš takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jiří Panoš provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Viktoria Plzen can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Viktoria Plzen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A 3‑2 win over Slovan Liberec, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Viktoria Plzen asked and Prostějov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
He is 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
David Látal falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting David Látal's mistake
“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 Viktoria Plzen know it.
Viktoria Plzen asked and Zbrojovka 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Viktoria Plzen has been clear about where Tomáš Ladra stands, which is more than many ever get.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of David Látal
BoardroomNobody left the Viktoria Plzen dressing room in a hurry
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
10 goals in 17 games at FC Košice — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Viktoria Plzen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ondřej Kolář'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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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 Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Vladimir Darida could afford to be generous.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
“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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 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.
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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Vladimir Darida chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Jiří Panoš, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Viktoria Plzen who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Something was said to Matěj Vydra and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Mathias 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.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Matěj Vydra’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Viktoria Plzen.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vladimir Darida on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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.
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Šimon Gabriel is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viktoria Plzen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
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 Sparta Prague.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Viktoria Plzen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Christophe Kabongo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Viktoria Plzen needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jiří Panoš. 2‑0 against Slovacko, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad8 Nov 2027
David Látal 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jiří Panoš has come out of that comparison in the side, and Viktoria Plzen have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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.” Vladimir Darida kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal 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. Viktoria Plzen told Tomáš Ladra something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Karel Spáčil is on it.
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.
Jiří Panoš, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 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.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Jiří Panoš 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.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Mathias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vladimir Darida on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutTomáš Ladra has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting David Látal's mistake
Player ratingsPavel Juroška beats them one at a time
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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 Viktoria Plzen has been clear about where David Látal stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 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 Matěj Vydra is on it.
In brief
The dugoutTomáš Ladra knocks on the manager's door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
David Látal 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.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Viktoria Plzen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Ondřej Kolář has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Something was said to Christophe Kabongo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Mathias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladimir Darida after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Šimon Gabriel is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Látal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
“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.
Matyáš Kubrycht 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nobody at Viktoria Plzen 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
David Látal is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viktoria Plzen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Cheick Oumar Souaré 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matyáš Kubrycht is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Viktoria Plzen.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Látal 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.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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 Viktoria Plzen, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Plzen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Viktoria Plzen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Viktoria Plzen asked and Pardubice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.