27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Cupák 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.
Jakub Kolář 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zlin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 16 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin 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 Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Zlin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Zlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Cupák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Toby Chadli is 34 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Joss Didiba has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutPrince Mbatshi asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Jakub Pešek
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zlin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antonín Křapka 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Michal Cupák 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 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 Zlin know it.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Michal Fukala was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonín Křapka 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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 16 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin 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 Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zvonimir Katalinić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Michal Fukala 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.
Jakub Kolář and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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 Adam Vydra to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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 was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Zlin close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Zlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Antonín Křapka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Fukala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Zlin asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
26 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑4 to Slovan Liberec, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zlin can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Fukala 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.
Zlin 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
0‑3 against Viktoria Plzen, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
24 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.
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joey Brandt has just signed for Zlin, and for once the answer mattered.
Antonín Křapka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Fukala is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovacko have kept their man, and Zlin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Antonín Křapka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Michal Cupák 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.
“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; Zlin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout28 Dec 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 0‑2 Adam Vydra left the room before anybody could ask which.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 15 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zlin can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonín Křapka 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ondřej Kukučka, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 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 Adam Vydra left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑3 against Zbrojovka Brno, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonín Křapka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Zlin 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.
Antonín Křapka 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 easiest signature of my career.” Cletus Nombil and Zlin agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Michal Fukala falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Stanislav Petruța is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
0‑6 against Slavia Prague, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Stanislav Dostál 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zlin and Slavia Prague in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonín Křapka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Fukala is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zlin told Jakub Kolář something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Antonín Křapka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Michal Cupák 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Adam Vydra after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Michal Fukala and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonín Křapka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zlin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Zlin know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Zlin had all but put away. Jihlava will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Something was said to Tomáš Poznar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jakub Jugas
0‑4 against Banik Ostrava, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Jakub Kolář was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Zlin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
6 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Cupák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cletus Nombil 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.
Dukla Prague left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Adam Vydra left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonín Křapka 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.
Tom Ulbrich 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
12 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.
Antonín Křapka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Cupák 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 here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Adam Vydra to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at Zlin 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.
Bohemians 1905 next, and one man in the Zlin dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Antonín Křapka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Cupák 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.
11 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Adam Vydra to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutJakub Kolář knocks on the manager’s door
10 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.
0‑4 against Viktoria Plzen, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every 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 Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
400 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abubakar Isyaku is living that version at Zlin, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Michal Cupák 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.
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Adam Vydra was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Zlin dressing room was either.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zlin are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Zlin are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Michal Cupák 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Zlin 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ismail Mukhtar has, at Zlin, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Legia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Cupák 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 words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
$3.4M was the most the club would pay and CF Montreal 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Zlin asked and Metalist said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Cletus Nombil 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$2.8M on the table at CF Montreal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Zlin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Cupák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Sparta Prague for Cletus Nombil 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.
Antonín Křapka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Cupák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout17 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 0‑4 Adam Vydra left the room before anybody could ask which.
1‑4 to Sparta Prague, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
$2.8M on the table at Sparta Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Fukala 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.
19 seasons and 307 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Antonín Křapka 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.
Pribram left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Michal Cupák 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Antonín Křapka’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.