Marked for Christopher Luhaka
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Đorđe Gordić 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 Debrecen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Adrián Guerrero 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dominik Kocsis is on it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Julien Dacosta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market15 Feb 2027
The name of Nikola Maraš keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Debrecen say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Yacouba Silué’s exile
6 goals in 24 games at OFK Beograd — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Debrecen updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Marko Pavić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Pavić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Debrecen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Debrecen
Nikola Maraš and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
43 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Botond Nyikos and Debrecen agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Debrecen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan move for Sergi Domínguez is in the works
Debrecen have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Edin Ajdinović
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Debrecen
Nikola Maraš and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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; Debrecen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christopher Luhaka and Debrecen agree another 2 years.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.17, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Pavić, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Debrecen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Márk Szécsi 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Attila Lang chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Julien Dacosta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Csanád Vilmos Dénes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Debrecen — 7.57
1 for Fran Manzanara, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Debrecen
Nikola Maraš 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 terraces12 Oct 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match10 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Csanád Vilmos Dénes. 2‑0 against Bekescsaba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match10 Oct 2026
At last: Debrecen win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Bekescsaba. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Debrecen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josua Mejías 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Amos Youga
“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.