Post Category → Mid-Season Stocktakes

2025/26 winter stocktake: FK Teplice

It started off much like last year. Six losses out of the first 7, three of them very unlucky. Stuck on only one win until Round 11. In 2024, it was seven losses out of the first 8, five of them undeserved, but at least by Round 11, Teplice were already on three victories. It’s therefore a little wonder FKT ended up improving their forecast, following up on Pardubice suitably with their own three-win conclusion of 2025 which completely changed the season’s complexion for them, giving the team a bit of breathing space.

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2025/26 winter stocktake: FK Pardubice

It’s hard to think of a club in recent memory that would sit 7 points off the direct relegation spot, like Pardubice do now, yet still head into the spring in such high spirits as the Eastern Bohemian organization — armed with a new sporting director transitioning from the same role at a freaking Slavia (much recommend Jiří Bílek’s refreshing interview for Liga Naruby, btw), who’s in sync with the new-ish head coach Jan Trousil, his former teammate from lower tiers, and supported by a rich owner. For now, I’ll stop short of calling FK Pardubice an emerging mid-table staple, but they could very well be on the way.

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2025/26 winter stocktake: FC Baník Ostrava

On 19 July, just a few days before their continental showdown with Legia, Baník lined up for the league opener flush with all the trump cards — Ewerton, Šín, Prekop, Rigo, Kohút. Everyone was there for the unlucky 0:1 loss. Fast forward 6 months, the first four names are gone, as is the head coach biding the curse of the successful men before him, and the fifth star only just returned from a long injury lay-off. A side the model had all but locked into the Top 4 now finds itself joint bottom, with 9 fewer projected wins than at the outset.

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2025/26 winter stocktake: FK Mladá Boleslav

Nobody expected this transition to be painless. Yet, nobody expected it to be quite this painful either. For the first 8 rounds, everybody was like “woo-hoo”, in for the ride that saw Mladá Boleslav pacing for over 55 regular-season goals scored, over 80 goals conceded, and a lousy but somewhat tolerable 30 points. Throughout the next six rounds (of two points), the reality set in and it all came crashing down, with coach Aleš Majer seemingly needing to receive some sort of a vote of confidence every two weeks. Now, with Majer more or less assured, team more or less set in their ways, it’s time to make progress.

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2025/26 winter stocktake: 1. FC Slovácko

On a fourth permanent coach since the iconic Martin Svědík left the club a mere year and a half ago, Slovácko are officially at a critical crossroads and part of the relegation-threatened inner circle. Last season, there was the Dynamo-shaped get-out-of-jail card; now there’s no cushion, with Slovácko sharing the 14-point basement with two other clubs. Will the (thus far) modest winter reinforcements prove to be enough for the fight?

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2025/26 winter stocktake: FK Dukla Praha

Amidst a complete top-down overhaul from the owner, sporting director and head coach all the way down to much of the dressing room, Dukla welcomed the year 2026 by losing one more longtime voice on the board (CEO Tomáš Mejzr), having that same new head coach called out publicly by the very same new sporting director (who’d wasted no time in signing a couple more random foreigners) for not introducing any tangible identity, all the while sharing the league’s basement and coming out as the favourite to wrap up the regular season dead last in our winter simulations. Yeah, safe to say, it’s not gone great…

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