Marked for Dániel Horváth
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 May 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 May 2030
Álvaro Ramón 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 Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 May 2030
Gergő Gyurkits 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.
Market27 May 2030
He is 20, and nobody at Paksi signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout27 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tadija Crnojević, and the manager let it.
Squad27 May 2030
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Paksi are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout27 May 2030
Matej Moško 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 Matej Moško trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad27 May 2030
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 Paksi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market27 May 2030
The János Hahn talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Paksi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces20 May 2030
Supporters organise against the Paksi board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market20 May 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paksi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 May 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Veljko Đorđević commits to Paksi for another 4 years.
Squad20 May 2030
A row about effort at Paksi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Gyurkits was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market20 May 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gergő Gyurkits’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 May 2030
Every point is an argument now for Paksi
Position 16 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad13 May 2030
Words exchanged at Paksi
Álvaro Ramón 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.
Squad13 May 2030
A row about effort at Paksi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Gyurkits was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom13 May 2030
Paksi still without a manager
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Boardroom13 May 2030
86% of the income goes out in wages at Paksi
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.
Market13 May 2030
Gábor Vas linked with a move away
The name of Gábor Vas keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Paksi say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout13 May 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bohdan Stepanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 May 2030
The clock does József Windecker’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Paksi could ask drops and the wages József Windecker can ask rise.
Squad13 May 2030
Álvaro Ramón 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 Paksi that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Apr 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Richárd Jelena
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Paksi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Apr 2030
“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 Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
This is not rotation. József Windecker has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Paksi is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Álvaro Ramón 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 Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Paksi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Gyurkits was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market1 Apr 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paksi, another week without a signature from Ádám Kovácsik.
Squad1 Apr 2030
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Soma Lékai, and the manager let it.
Market1 Apr 2030
The János Hahn talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Paksi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Feb 2030
A fracture rules Veljko Đorđević out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paksi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 Feb 2030
Paksi sink to position 16
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match16 Feb 2030
No end in sight to Paksi's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Paksi has to find a result from somewhere.
Market18 Feb 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paksi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match16 Feb 2030
The goals have deserted Paksi
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Paksi can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words exchanged at Paksi
Álvaro Ramón 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Gergő Gyurkits 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 Feb 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Paksi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“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 Paksi know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tilen Ščernjavič will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jesenice the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 May 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.
Squad21 May 2029
A falling-out at Jesenice
Borna Panić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 May 2029
This is not rotation. Joel Catesby has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Jesenice is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 May 2029
A row about effort at Jesenice
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wim Vanmarsenille was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Jesenice are $11.7M 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.
The dugout21 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adnan Jakupović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 May 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.
The dugout21 May 2029
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.