From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑4 beating by OFK Beograd was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Đorđe Jovanović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Efe Obiomo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Zeleznicar Pancevo 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.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Beaten 4 times: a bad day for Zoran Popović
5 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
At 39, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.11, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Đorđe Jovanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Zeleznicar Pancevo asked and OFK Beograd said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Uros Savic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miroslav Nastasic 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Efe Obiomo has had enough of the bench
“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 Zeleznicar Pancevo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Djordje Djuricic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Zeleznicar Pancevo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zeleznicar Pancevo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Milikić, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Hamilton in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zeleznicar Pancevo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kwaku Karikari has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market7 Sep 2026
Hamilton is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market7 Sep 2026
The David Ankeye talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zeleznicar Pancevo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match29 Aug 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zeleznicar Pancevo are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Vojvodina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Zeleznicar Pancevo asked and Dubočica 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Đorđe Jovanović
“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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Djordje Djuricic to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to BA All Stars: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Zoran Popović decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Zemun are out and Zeleznicar Pancevo go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Đorđe Jovanović 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zeleznicar Pancevo asked and Jablonec 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A penalty is the one moment in football with nowhere to hide, and he did not score it. The walk back was long and the week will be longer.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Djordje Djuricic left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Đorđe Jovanović gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Đorđe Jovanović has just signed for Zeleznicar Pancevo, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Zeleznicar Pancevo asked and Levadiakos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Javor-Matis, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
David Ankeye gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zeleznicar Pancevo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marko Ćurić 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Cukaricki 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Kwaku Karikari takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kwaku Karikari provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Clément Lhernault had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Ankeye and Zeleznicar Pancevo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zeleznicar Pancevo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets10 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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Janko Jevremović 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ivan Simic 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bogdan Ilic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zoran Popović and Zeleznicar Pancevo agree another 2 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Clément Lhernault has come up in conversations Zeleznicar Pancevo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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 Zeleznicar Pancevo know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Miloš Kosanović 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnicki Nis have kept their man, and Zeleznicar Pancevo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zoran Popović, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to IMT, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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 Zeleznicar Pancevo, another week without a signature from Zoran Popović.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.