53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vlašim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jiří Tesař was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ondřej Žežulka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Filip Darida to a room that had heard them before.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamadou Koné was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Vlašim can tell you which week it ends in.
Patrik Goj 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Filip Darida to a room that had heard them before.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Bojan Đorđić 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 Mamadou Koné was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Marandici trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ahmed Family has, at Vlašim, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vlašim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Štěpán Langer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vlašim, another week without a signature from Ahmed Family.
Nobody at Vlašim 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Solomon Omale’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vlašim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Jiří Kateřiňák 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 Mamadou Koné 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.” Filip Darida after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Solomon Omale'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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Bojan Đorđić 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Vlašim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Koné 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Slavia Kroměříž scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Solomon Omale was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Filip Darida left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Štěpán Bachůrek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vlašim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Štěpán Bachůrek 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 Mamadou Koné was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lukas Krejci has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Filip Sykora is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ondřej Šašinka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
18 new faces, and Vlašim 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.
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Vlašim close the window on a squad of their own making
27 in and 17 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $10.0K — a club that wants Štěpán Chaluš enough to be asked twice.
Štěpán Bachůrek 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.
Slavia Prague wanted more than $9.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mamadou Koné falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Vlašim will try again when the window opens; Zbrojovka Brno may not be selling by then.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Vlašim will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Sparta Prague B will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vlašim were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
7.87, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The offer went to Zbrojovka Brno 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.
Bojan Đorđić 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukáš Váňa 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sparta Prague B were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
In brief
Player ratingsJakub Nečas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jiří Tesař is a Vlašim player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamadou Koné was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jablonec have kept their man, and Vlašim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vlašim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.26 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Patrik Goj has, at Vlašim, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrik Goj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Petr Breda has just signed for Vlašim, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Everything agreed with Zbrojovka Brno, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The shirt still fits. Petr Breda is back at Vlašim, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Petr Heppner is a Vlašim player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Bojan Đorđić 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Petr Breda 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.
Vlašim asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Petr Darida has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bojan Đorđić and Vlašim agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Vlašim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Koné is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Artis Brno have kept their man, and Vlašim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Still no offer on the table, and Bojan Đorđić’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A loan enquiry to Jablonec: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Vlašim are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Filip Darida chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vlašim, and both men came out saying it was fine.