The drama at Hajduk continues.
On Tuesday evening, Hajduk decided on a rather radical move to hand over Hysen Memolla, Marko Futacs, and former Hajduk captain Zoran Nižić to Hajduk’s B team. This was the response of coach Željko Kopić and sports director Saša Bjelanović’, whose resignations after the Gorica loss were rejected by Hajduk president Jasmin Huljaj, reports Goal.hrGoal.hr on August 21, 2018.
Such a shocking move was most likely the only way the coach and sports director could regain control over the Hajduk dressing room, where there has been a poor relationship in and around the club for months.
But what actually went wrong with these three players?
Marko Futacs has a contract with Hajduk until the summer of 2019 and there is no doubt that he and the club will be happiest when there is an offer that satisfies both sides.
No official offer has arrived at Poljud for the Hungarian player yet, though Futacs is currently earning about 250,000 euro a year at Hajduk, which would be hard to come by at any other club.
Marko’s dismay at Hajduk began with a hooligan attack in the center of Split last spring, an incident after which Futacs no longer played a decent game in the first-team jersey. His poor mental condition is best summarized by the fact that in the first four rounds of the Croatian First League, he did not play a single minute, while in the Europa League qualifiers, he played only 14 minutes against FCSB at home. Therefore, it is no surprise that he was eliminated from the first team.
The situation surrounding Zoran Nižić is unfamiliar territory, especially since the captain publicly stated his truth about why he hasn’t been playing, which saw Hajduk respond as the player giving false information, and attributing it to lack of respect for Hajduk.
The short version is that Hajduk repeatedly refused offers for the 28-year-old Hajduk captain. Nižić is a player with a relatively low contract of about 200,000 euro a year (while, for example, Caktaš earns about 450,000 euro), but according to the claims of Huljaj, Nižić refused to sign a better contract.
Whoever is right in the end doesn’t seem to matter, as the relationship between the Hajduk player and the leadership of the club has been scathed. It is obvious that Nižić will no longer have a future in the Hajduk jersey, and it remains questionable whether he, like Futacs, will be sold by end of the summer transfer period or will be sentenced to training with the B team.
The situation around Memolla is also unclear because the Albanian player was never publicly in disagreement with Hajduk, although he has not played a single minute this season.
It’s possible that the Albanian player, who earns a salary of around 150,000 euro, has become the fifth choice for the left-back position. In front of him is Fomitschow and the almost forgotten Filip, as well as the young Bradarić and Borja Lopez, who does not primarily play in this position.
The relegation of these three players, in any case, should not be surprising. The question remains, however, if this should have been done earlier in the season when there was a greater chance of sales, and whether it would have had the same effect on the team before falling out of Europa League.
Kopić and Bjelanovic can be comforted by the fact that in the next ten days, they will not have to go into the panic searching for substitutions, as it is these three who did not have any considerable time this season, and their positions are, at least quantitatively, already covered.
In other club news, association ‘Our Hajduk’ (Naš Hajduk) has sent a press release stating that elections will be held for the new appointment of the HNK Hajduk Split Supervisory Board on December 15, 2018.
Our Hajduk is an association founded with the aim of conducting democratic elections in the club and, on behalf of the majority owner of the City of Split, selects people in the NO.
"The association Our Hajduk will vote for the new appointment of the HNK Hajduk Split Supervisory Board on December 15, 2018. In the next period, a call will be issued for all those who wish to run and the Association will, as in the previous two elections, ensure it is implemented to the highest standards,” the statement said.
President of the HNK Hajduk Supervisory Board, Slaven Marasović, addressed the public today.
