From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by NK Osijek, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Vukovar 1991 can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow is saying, and nobody at HNK Vukovar 1991 is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and HNK Vukovar 1991 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Appearance number 200 for Mario Tadić
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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to HNK Vukovar 1991's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at HNK Vukovar 1991 has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match22 Aug 2026
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then NK Varazdin scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Lokomotiv Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AZ have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with NK Varazdin leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Dario Tadic: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No place for Leon Šipoš in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation HNK Vukovar 1991 are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by Dinamo Zagreb, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and HNK Vukovar 1991 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dario Vukas in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Vukovar 1991 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the HNK Vukovar 1991 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Shakhtar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Reggiana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
HNK Vukovar 1991 asked and NK Varazdin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario Majer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sime Pjaca 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vedran Pasalic 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nikola Kramaric 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Istra 1961 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Robin Gonzalez and HNK Vukovar 1991 agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and HNK Vukovar 1991 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luka Klanac 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Josip Špoljarić
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at HNK Vukovar 1991, another week without a signature from Mario Tićinović.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Robin Gonzalez's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and HNK Vukovar 1991 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.