0‑1 against Admira Wacker. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ferencvaros pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
90% of the income goes out in wages at Ferencvaros
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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 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.
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Honved 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.
Ferencvaros asked and Vasas 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Ferencvaros have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Gómez 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.
28 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer from Fehervar for Gábor Szalai 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.
The fee is $2.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. BVSC-Zugló drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
37 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mariano Gómez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deal with ETO Győr 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Soroksár waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Ferencvaros have gone to Slavia Prague with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling 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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ferencvaros asked and Honved said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Honved 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.
44 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.
Ferencvaros have gone to ETO Győr with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Karcag have accepted the money. What Ferencvaros do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Ferencvaros asked and Ujpest 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 offer from Szentlőrinc for Toon Raemaekers 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.
$1.9M on the table at BVSC-Zugló. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
ETO Győr go through and Ferencvaros go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ferencvaros had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
9 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
26 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE 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.
9 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Krisztofer Szerető trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Miloje Jelenić 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Đurović 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.
“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; Budafoki MTE are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 May 2028
An order from above at Budafoki MTE: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloje Jelenić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Destin Banzouzi 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.
“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 Budafoki MTE know it.
Nobody at Budafoki MTE 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad8 May 2028
Habib Maïga 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.
8 goals in 26 games at Budafoki MTE — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ferencvaros updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Franko Kovačević is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ferencvaros, another week without a signature from Artúr Horváth.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutVanja Zvekanov asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
András Hársfalvi 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloje Jelenić 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 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 Budafoki MTE know it.
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 Bertalan Kun is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Budafoki MTE. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutMárió Németh asks for a word with the manager
BoardroomThe Budafoki MTE production line keeps running
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Miloje Jelenić 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Filip Đurović 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Budafoki MTE 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Budafoki MTE. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
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 Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Destin Banzouzi 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Budafoki MTE will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Budafoki MTE 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dávid Kálnoki-Kis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Mariano Gómez 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.
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Czéh 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE 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 Filip Đurović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Apr 2028
10 new faces, and Budafoki MTE 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.
Nobody at Budafoki MTE 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roland Hajdú trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
122 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE 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 Miloje Jelenić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Krisztofer Szerető and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Botond Kemenes is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Budafoki MTE would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloje Jelenić 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 Budafoki MTE 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 Tobias Lerchbacher, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Adir Córdoba for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Budafoki MTE will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
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.
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3 on 52 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Miloje Jelenić 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
Filip Đurović 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.
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Gómez 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.
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.
8 goals in 26 games at Budafoki MTE — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ferencvaros updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Franko Kovačević is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Ferencvaros have no good answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Mariano Gómez 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Budafoki MTE suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Ferencvaros, and the summer will force it.
Position 3, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.12, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deal that would have taken András Hársfalvi to MTK Budapest has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Budafoki MTE with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
András Hársfalvi 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloje Jelenić 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.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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 Krisztian Fiola to a room that had heard them before.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The deal that would have taken Mariano Gómez to Puskas Akademia has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Ferencvaros with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Mariano Gómez 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.
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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ferencvaros, another week without a signature from Darío Bonilla.
“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 Budafoki MTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 41 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Patrik Posztobányi scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ádin Molnár. 3‑2 against Diosgyor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Budafoki MTE asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to MTK Budapest; Budafoki MTE go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrik Posztobányi and Budafoki MTE agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloje Jelenić 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Péter Baráth 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Budafoki MTE can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Budafoki MTE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Miloje Jelenić 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 Filip Đurović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.38, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Ádin Molnár takes the afternoon — 9.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ádin Molnár provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloje Jelenić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 4, 27 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Márk Jagodics and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Krisztian Fiola kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Zoltán Csizmadia
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Budafoki MTE man
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Miloje Jelenić 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.
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Milan Spremo 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Krisztian Fiola on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloje Jelenić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ádin Molnár is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saša Knežević signs something — a contract at Budafoki MTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Budafoki MTE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
András Hársfalvi 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 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.
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.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
94% of the income goes out in wages at Budafoki MTE
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
48 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Milan Spremo 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Budafoki MTE told Ádin Molnár something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Krisztian Fiola after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dávid Kálnoki-Kis and Budafoki MTE agree another 2 years.
1‑3 to Honved, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Spremo 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 dugout4 Oct 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 Krisztian Fiola to a room that had heard them before.
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 Ádin Molnár is on it.
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Đurović 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 Budafoki MTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Budafoki MTE. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Diosgyor tried to reorganise, Budafoki MTE did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Budafoki MTE told Filip Đurović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Budafoki MTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Budafoki MTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Budafoki MTE close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 8 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Đurović 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. Radomiak Radom have kept their man, and Budafoki MTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Destin Banzouzi 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He is 20, and nobody at Budafoki MTE signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bálint Rehó did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
András Hársfalvi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Spremo 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. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Budafoki MTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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
Transfer targetsA loan move for Gábor Vas is in the works
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Budafoki MTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The phone has started ringing about Alexander Torvund again, and this time the name on the line is Debrecen. Budafoki MTE are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Budafoki MTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Spremo 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.
Budafoki MTE asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Miloje Jelenić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bence Szabó 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.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Budafoki MTE are still learning each other
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kozármisleny can pretend not to have heard.
Zsombor Molnár 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 Bence Ötvös was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bence Sallai after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Barna Kesztyűs's mistake
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ádin Molnár had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Patrick Berg 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Gómez 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.
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 Lenny Joseph is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kisvárda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Ferencvaros would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Toon Raemaekers had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Mariano Gómez 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.
Callum O'Dowda 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 name of Ádin Molnár has come up in conversations Ferencvaros were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 Franko Kovačević is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Miloš Jovičić 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 Bence Ötvös was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Kozármisleny go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Kevin Balla is 20, and Kozármisleny 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.
Kozármisleny have made the call to Politehnica Iași. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to HNK Vukovar 1991: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Budafoki MTE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
András Hársfalvi 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 Milan Spremo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Budafoki MTE asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Bertalan Kun is on it.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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 terraces28 Jun 2027
Ferencvaros spend $5.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $5.5M for Péter Baráth, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Péter Baráth 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.
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 Lenny Joseph is on it.
The deal with FAC Wien 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nyíregyháza keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milan Spremo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Budafoki MTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Márió Németh has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Barnabás Kovács has moved up it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Márió Németh has his answer from Budafoki MTE; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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.
“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 Ferencvaros will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Veljko Birmančević provided it, and the 9.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Mariano Gómez 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.