Marked for Dániel Winter
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Nov 2029
Henrik Bjørdal breaks a bone — 118 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Dániel Winter damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Roland Sallai 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
“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 Ferencvaros know it.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ferencvaros told Maksim Samorodov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
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.
Market19 Nov 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Benjamin Tetteh has his answer from Ferencvaros; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kazincbarcika in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market19 Nov 2029
The name of Henrik Bjørdal keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ferencvaros say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Nov 2029
Henrik Bjørdal breaks a bone — 126 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Nov 2029
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Nov 2029
31 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market12 Nov 2029
Only the photograph left for Veljko Đokić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Veljko Đokić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Roland Sallai 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
5 Ferencvaros players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Loan watch12 Nov 2029
Balázs Tóth’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 11 appearances at ETO Győr. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
Roland Sallai has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Market12 Nov 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Nov 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dániel Winter
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Oct 2029
A 1‑0 win over BVSC-Zugló, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market5 Nov 2029
Bálint Katona hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Marked 7.86 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match3 Nov 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ferencvaros have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Nov 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maksim Samorodov. 2‑1 against Budafoki MTE, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces5 Nov 2029
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
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Looking ahead
The big one: Kisvárda come into view
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Squad
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Roland Sallai at his very best
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market20 Aug 2029
“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 Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“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.
Match18 Aug 2029
Whatever happens, Mezőkövesd do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Viktor Csörgő 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.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Mezőkövesd now.
Market20 Aug 2029
Ferencvaros pay $250.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Mezőkövesd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Urho Nissilä was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Ádám Pintér beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Jul 2029
Viktor Csörgő 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.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Stefan Golubović 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Debrecen have kept their man, and Mezőkövesd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Jul 2029
8 new faces, and Mezőkövesd are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Nyíregyháza: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Mezőkövesd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Urho Nissilä 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 targets16 Jul 2029
Mezőkövesd asked and Puskas Akademia 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 dugout16 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Antonijević, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mezőkövesd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Jul 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Joachim Amijekori has his answer from Mezőkövesd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Antonio Rajić has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Mezőkövesd know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Match16 Jul 2029
Continental football is in reach for Mezőkövesd
45 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jun 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Dániel Winter 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
A move Vilmos Telek would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vilmos Telek is living that version at Mezőkövesd, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The numbers do not look good at Mezőkövesd
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Urho Nissilä 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
10 new faces, and Mezőkövesd are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Dobrudzha 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.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Pablo Muñoz
“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
Steady
Market18 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market18 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mezőkövesd can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Urho Nissilä 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
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 dugout18 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
The formation has left Balázs Rácz behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mezőkövesd will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Fehervar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Honved: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jun 2029
Viktor Csörgő hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mezőkövesd can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Everything agreed with Kisvárda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Viktor Csörgő 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Urho Nissilä 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
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.
Market4 Jun 2029
No place for Dávid Bobál in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dávid Bobál has his answer from Mezőkövesd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market4 Jun 2029
Honved are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Mezőkövesd will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Altach 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.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2029
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mezőkövesd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Viktor Csörgő 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Mezőkövesd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Urho Nissilä 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 dugout26 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Antonijević, and the manager let it.
Market26 Mar 2029
Still no signature from Dino Matić
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Mezőkövesd could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mezőkövesd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match30 Dec 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Mezőkövesd did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Dávid Bobál 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.
Loan watch1 Jan 2029
“I watch every Mezőkövesd game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fehervar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market1 Jan 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Viktor Csörgő has his answer from Mezőkövesd; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match30 Dec 2028
A 1‑0 win over Csákvár, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Wages swallow 129% of the Mezőkövesd income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Nov 2028
Miljan Krpić 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 Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Mezőkövesd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dávid Bobál 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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Wages swallow 150% of the Mezőkövesd income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Loan watch6 Nov 2028
“I did not go to Fehervar to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mezőkövesd and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Match4 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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 Tamas Gulacsi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Dino Matić makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Aug 2028
The small margins put Mezőkövesd out
Out, 0‑1 to Diosgyor, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market4 Sep 2028
Viktor Csörgő hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mezőkövesd can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $178.4K of what Mezőkövesd paid for Csongor Kokovai is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Mezőkövesd close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 14 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.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
The deal with Mladost Lucani is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Mezőkövesd's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mezőkövesd has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Branko Nikolić 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lazar Selenić and Mezőkövesd agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fehervar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mezőkövesd is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jun 2028
Add another name to the list: ZTE have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Miloje Jelenić. The answer from Mezőkövesd has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Ferencvaros, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Dávid Bobál and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Urho Nissilä 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.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MTK Budapest have kept their man, and Mezőkövesd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jason Mbock, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
A loan move for Branko Nikolić is in the works
Mezőkövesd have made the call to Vojvodina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 May 2028
Miljan Krpić 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 May 2028
Kosta Janjić 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 dugout1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Dániel Winter slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dániel Winter is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad1 May 2028
The formation has left Paris Pleionis behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mezőkövesd will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout1 May 2028
Stefan Golubović asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market1 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mezőkövesd, another week without a signature from Paris Pleionis.
Market1 May 2028
The Mátyás Gresó talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mezőkövesd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
Miljan Krpić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Paris Pleionis gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Paris Pleionis has just signed for Mezőkövesd, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Urho Nissilä 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Too much change too quickly at Mezőkövesd
14 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
Dino Matić is 20, and Mezőkövesd have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Dániel Winter 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 Dániel Winter trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Apr 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mezőkövesd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
Miljan Krpić 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 dugout10 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kosta Janjić, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Mezőkövesd
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Golubović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
Wages swallow 86% of the Mezőkövesd income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Mezőkövesd now.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Viktor Csörgő asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Miloje Jelenić has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Mezőkövesd that is a harder question to answer.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Péter Bányai 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 Mezőkövesd will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market10 Apr 2028
The Máté Deczki talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mezőkövesd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2028
BVSC-Zugló finish in position 14
28 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market13 Mar 2028
Gábor Tóth hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BVSC-Zugló can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Mar 2028
No end in sight to BVSC-Zugló's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BVSC-Zugló has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Norbert Szélpál and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Bence Gergényi 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A last season at home is what Gábor Tóth is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Roland Lehoczky will call it something else in private.
Squad13 Mar 2028
12 new faces, and BVSC-Zugló are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
A promise honoured at BVSC-Zugló
Something was said to Dániel Winter and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Feb 2028
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BVSC-Zugló lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match28 Feb 2028
BVSC-Zugló are in real trouble now
Position 14, 27 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market28 Feb 2028
The shirt still fits. Ákos Király is back at BVSC-Zugló, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Norbert Szélpál 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 Feb 2028
A move Ákos Király would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ákos Király is living that version at BVSC-Zugló, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Igor Jeličić 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
Kazincbarcika left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
BVSC-Zugló are $24.0M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.