The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ifet Đakovac decided nobody was going anywhere. Radnicki Nis had no time left to answer.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Vojvodina ran out of time with Almagro. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
15 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Matija Gočmanac has been having a lot of them.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Csákvár have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ifet Đakovac. 1‑0 against Radnicki Nis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vojvodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer went to Almagro 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.
Vojvodina asked and Raków Częstochowa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Uroš Paunović 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.07, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dragan Rosić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
BoardroomThe Vojvodina board find $5.0M for the manager
SquadSunday Aniebet falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateja Gašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vojvodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Vojvodina asked and Lokomotiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
24 appearances at Mladost Lucani and the goals have stopped going in. Vojvodina lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrej Pivaš 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 Vojvodina, and 2 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
10 goals in 24 games at Kabel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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, 6.80, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Napredak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Slobodan Medojević 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was 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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Nikola Virijević, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Veljko Milivojević has, at Vojvodina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
James Penrice was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateja Gašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vojvodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Vojvodina will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Nikola Virijević, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 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.
7.85, 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.
Slobodan Medojević 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrej Pivaš. 2‑1 against Spartak Subotica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Milutin Vidosavljević has his answer from Vojvodina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefan Maksimovic after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
SquadSunday Aniebet falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vojvodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Andrej Pivaš 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 the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Fryderyk Janaszek has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vojvodina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
0‑1 against Anderlecht, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“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 Vojvodina, and 8 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Vojvodina know it.
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 Ifet Đakovac is on it.
17 appearances at Mladost Lucani and the goals have stopped going in. Vojvodina lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vojvodina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Marked 8.14 — 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Stefan Maksimovic could afford to be generous.
1‑1 against Malmo FF, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Nardin Mulahusejnović was at the centre of the description.
Luka Nedović 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Pivaš 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vladan Novevski has his answer from Vojvodina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
9 goals in 16 games at Zemun — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vojvodina told Andrej Pivaš something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrej Pivaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nardin Mulahusejnović had Vojvodina level again within 1 minutes, and Radnik Surdulica never got to play with a lead at all.
Half the programme played, position 2, 32 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dubočica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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 Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 goals in 14 games at Zemun — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nardin Mulahusejnović signs something — a contract at Vojvodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Radnik Surdulica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑0 against Galatasaray, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vojvodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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 Vojvodina, and 2 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Frank Feller 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrej Pivaš 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.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Nikola Virijević, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 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.
“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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.50, 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.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
1‑2 away to the standard of Galatasaray. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
“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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Mateja Gašić, marked 7.21, 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 Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stefan Maksimovic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Vojvodina dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Vojvodina had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Andrej Pivaš 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.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dubočica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vojvodina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luka Nedović 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vojvodina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Dimeski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sochi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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 dugoutDragan Rosić knocks on the manager’s door
0‑2 against Anderlecht, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.84, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
James Penrice 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 Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Minute 93, against Cukaricki, 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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 Vojvodina 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 Andrej Pivaš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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
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.” Stefan Maksimovic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
2‑1 against Malmo FF, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
14 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.
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. 14 actions, 6.97, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avellino have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vojvodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. TSC moved on, Filip Obadović reports back to Vojvodina, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Vojvodina will try again when the window opens; Novi Pazar may not be selling by then.
Slobodan Medojević 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.
Vojvodina asked and Shakhtar 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and Vojvodina are still learning each other
$5.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The offer from Hartberg for Stefan Stanisavljević 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.
Vojvodina and Novi Pazar have settled on $990.0K. 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.
He is going to Crvena Zvezda, the club has $5.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Vojvodina close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 28 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vojvodina people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Ifet Đakovac takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ifet Đakovac provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.25 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
5 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.
The offer from Kisvárda for Kosta Rakonić 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vojvodina have done the hard part with Voždovac, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Stefan Stanisavljević had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atyrau waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vojvodina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
10 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.
Vojvodina asked and Beroe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Milutin Vidosavljević. 1‑0 against Crvena Zvezda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Luka Nedović 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Debrecen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Slobodan Medojević and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A 1‑0 win over Radnicki 1923, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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; Vojvodina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marko Mladenović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The name of Vladan Novevski has come up in conversations Vojvodina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Filip Obadović has his answer from Vojvodina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Vojvodina know which stage they are at.
12 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bellinzona had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vojvodina people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Đorđe Crnomarković scored, was marked 7.26, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Nardin Mulahusejnović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Vojvodina
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Vojvodina asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vojvodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and OFK Vršac waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vojvodina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The name of Stefan Stanisavljević has come up in conversations Vojvodina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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. Debrecen have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” FAP Priboj had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Vladan Novevski reports back to Vojvodina with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Add another name to the list: Crvena Zvezda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marko Veličković. The answer from Vojvodina has not changed — yet.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milutin Vidosavljević and Vojvodina agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Vojvodina asked and LA Galaxy 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 Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vojvodina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jedinstvo Ub waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vojvodina 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.” Loznica had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lucas Barros was one of the reasons people came, and $2.6M does not replace that by itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Borna Bošnjak has just signed for Vojvodina, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Vojvodina asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vojvodina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Crvena Zvezda for Kornél Szűcs 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.
Everything agreed with Tekstilac Odžaci, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Debrecen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kosta Rakonić. The answer from Vojvodina has not changed — yet.
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina 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.” Foggia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luka Nedović has just signed for Vojvodina, and for once the answer mattered.
Slobodan Medojević was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitoria Guimaraes have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Vojvodina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Dušan Jovanović comes from Radnicki Nis for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
The name of Mateja Gašić has come up in conversations Vojvodina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Dušan Jovanović was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.6M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Vojvodina asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Stefan Mitrović is on it.
28 appearances at Kabel and the goals have stopped going in. Vojvodina lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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. Vojvodina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Crvena Zvezda for Dejan Zukić 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 clubs have shaken hands with Radnicki Nis; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina 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.” Marko Mladenović and Vojvodina agree another 4 years.
“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 Vojvodina know it.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Vojvodina had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Nardin Mulahusejnović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
16 clean sheets and the golden glove for Dragan Rosić
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 16 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
19 appearances and 9 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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.
0 appearances, 0 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 Vojvodina will have this month.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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 watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kongsvinger runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dragan Rosić signs something — a contract at Vojvodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vojvodina. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateja Gašić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Vojvodina the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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 Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
9 shut-outs in 28 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Branko Nikolić has been having a lot of them.
5 goals in 25 games at Kabel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateja Gašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vojvodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
19 appearances at Trayal Kruševac and the goals keep coming. Vojvodina are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan 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 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.
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 Ifet Đakovac is on it.
Position 2, 59 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
11 goals in 27 games at Novi Pazar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
11 goals in 27 games at OFK Vršac — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina 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 Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vojvodina has been clear about where Lazar Ranđelović stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vojvodina. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Vojvodina will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vojvodina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kongsvinger 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 Milutin Vidosavljević is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dragan Rosić signs something — a contract at Vojvodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vojvodina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
12 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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 Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
9 clean sheets from 28 appearances at Kabel. 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Vojvodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dejan Zukić signs something — a contract at Vojvodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vojvodina. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutIfet Đakovac knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateja Gašić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vojvodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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; Vojvodina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
7 goals in 26 games at Kabel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Barros wants continental football; whether Vojvodina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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 Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 goals in 27 games at Novi Pazar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Vojvodina know it.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Kabel suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Vojvodina, and the summer will force it.
In brief
The dugoutMateja Gašić asks for a word with the manager
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vojvodina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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 Milutin Vidosavljević is on it.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Vojvodina the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Stefan Mitrović’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The offer from Viking for Damjan Đokanović 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.
Slobodan Medojević was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
20 appearances and 4 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver 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.
28 appearances at Kabel and the goals have stopped going in. Vojvodina lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vojvodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Damjan Đokanović is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
20 games, 4 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Vojvodina now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
7 goals in 26 games at Kabel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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.
Position 2, 59 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The first defeat in 14 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Novi Pazar; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Kongsvinger have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kosta Rakonić. The answer from Vojvodina has not changed — yet.
11 goals in 27 games at OFK Vršac — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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 1‑2 Stefan Maksimovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Vojvodina know it.
Nardin Mulahusejnović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Vojvodina pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The loan was meant to give him football. 2 games and 0 goals later he is back at Vojvodina no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“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.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against OFK Beograd; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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 watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kisvárda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vojvodina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stefan Mitrović. 2‑0 against Radnicki Nis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The deal that would have taken Milutin Vidosavljević to Crvena Zvezda has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Vojvodina with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Vojvodina prefer.
6 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Vojvodina 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
5 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.
Vojvodina had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zenit, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Crvena Zvezda pay $490.0K, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nyíregyháza have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Milutin Vidosavljević provided it, and the 8.53 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 Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
4 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vojvodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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.
The deal with Olympiacos 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Crvena Zvezda paid $280.0K and Vojvodina took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vojvodina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Vojvodina will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
Add another name to the list: OFK Vršac have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vukan Savićević. The answer from Vojvodina has not changed — yet.
Vojvodina asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Vukan Savićević decided nobody was going anywhere. Partizan had no time left to answer.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
7.69, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Vojvodina had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stefan Maksimovic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
7 goals in 14 games at Csákvár — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vojvodina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kabel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It needed Vukan Savićević to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Crvena Zvezda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stefan Maksimovic was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Vojvodina dressing room was either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vojvodina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Milutin Vidosavljević. 1‑0 against Radnicki 1923, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Stefan Maksimovic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Mladost Lucani will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vojvodina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Milutin Vidosavljević provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Vojvodina, and 5 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
Marked 7.16 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Barros wants continental football; whether Vojvodina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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; Vojvodina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Position 4, 26 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then TSC scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Kosta Rakonić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Stefan Maksimovic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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 Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Chances created: 13. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
“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 Vojvodina, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Stefan Maksimovic to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Kornél Szűcs'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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Vojvodina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Trayal Kruševac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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. Vojvodina 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 Ifet Đakovac’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vojvodina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vojvodina. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutMateja Gašić knocks on the manager’s door
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
“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 Vojvodina, and 5 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
It needed Nardin Mulahusejnović to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Spartak Subotica, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Stefan Maksimovic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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.
8 shut-outs in 13 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Branko Nikolić has been having a lot of them.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matija Gočmanac: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Out, 2‑2 to Zeleznicar Pancevo, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsStefan Mitrović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsVladan Novevski did the work nobody counts — 6.52
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Kornél Szűcs'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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Stefan Maksimovic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Marked 7.39 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Vojvodina had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Stefan Maksimovic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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 Dragan Rosić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vojvodina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
10 appearances at Kabel and the goals have stopped going in. Vojvodina lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Kosta Rakonić 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.
“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 Vojvodina, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Vojvodina 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.
Something was said to Nemanja Žunić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aleksa Vukanović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vojvodina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Slobodan Medojević 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dejan Zukić. 2‑1 against Cukaricki, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Vojvodina have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vojvodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
8.49. 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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
“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; Vojvodina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Radnik Surdulica will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vojvodina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Dejan Zukić takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dejan Zukić provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to 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 Vojvodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Vojvodina and Radnik Surdulica in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 6‑1, Stefan Maksimovic could afford to be generous.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Dejan Zukić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Vojvodina escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Ušće for Vladan Novevski 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.
Vojvodina asked and Voždovac 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Vojvodina 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 name of Vladan Novevski has come up in conversations Vojvodina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina 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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Mezőkövesd for Marko Veličković 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.
Vojvodina 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vojvodina 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 Vojvodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $400.0K — a club that wants Stefan Ranđelović enough to be asked twice.
Radnik Surdulica wanted more than $380.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. TSC have kept their man, and Vojvodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Crvena Zvezda for Mihai Butean 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vojvodina have done the hard part with IMT, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Viktoria Plzen is saying, and nobody at Vojvodina is enjoying the guessing.
$370.0K on the table at Radnik Surdulica. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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.
$320.0K was the most the club would pay and Cukaricki 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.
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. 14 actions, 6.89, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
The name of Vukašin Topić has come up in conversations Vojvodina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everything agreed with Viktoria Plzen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Vojvodina have gone to Cukaricki 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miroslav Grujic 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. Uros Babic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Veljko Mitrovic 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Mladenović provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Filip Obadović has, at Vojvodina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Nardin Mulahusejnović 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.65, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Barros wants continental football; whether Vojvodina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.