Marked for Josh Johnson
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
Marcell Huszár damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Match27 Nov 2028
Paksi are in real trouble now
Position 16, 8 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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Josh Johnson: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paksi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Paksi
Gergő Gyurkits and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“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.
Match25 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Nov 2028
The decline has begun for Ákos Kinyik
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Paksi is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Paksi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noel Keresztes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Nov 2028
The half-term report on Paksi
Position 16, 8 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Pressure builds in the Paksi boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market24 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Jul 2028
Csákvár come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Paksi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Paksi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jul 2028
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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to János Hahn, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Paksi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milán Pető was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Olympique de Marseille 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 dugout24 Jul 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Paksi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Paksi has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market17 Jul 2028
Ákos Onódi 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 Paksi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jul 2028
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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Ádám Kovácsik again, and this time the name on the line is Csákvár. Paksi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Jul 2028
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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ETO Győr have kept their man, and Paksi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Paksi are still strangers to each other
7 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Debrecen 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A loan move for Zsombor Riba is in the works
Paksi have made the call to Lommel. 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
Uneasy
Market11 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dubočica can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Dubočica
Mirko Andrić 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.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
Wages eat 85% of everything Dubočica earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabian Salmon, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Miguel Stoco 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Aleksa Milojević's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Bogdan Mladenović has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dubočica 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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Radnicki Nis next, and one man in the Dubočica dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dubočica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aleksa Todorović
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dubočica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Ayouba Kosiah takes the afternoon — 8.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ayouba Kosiah provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Josh Johnson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Dubočica
Mirko Andrić 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFK Beograd have kept their man, and Dubočica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
Mateja Gašić gets it from the manager
“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
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
Aleksa Todorović damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Match25 Aug 2027
Dubočica through in the cup
A 3‑2 win over Smederevo 1924, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match25 Aug 2027
2 behind and going nowhere, until Mujahid Ibrahim decided otherwise. Smederevo 1924 had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Miguel Stoco at 21 — 7.64
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Miguel Stoco did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and William delivers — 7.18
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. William scored, was marked 7.18, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Mirko Andrić 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 Dubočica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market30 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dubočica have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dubočica can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Crvena Zvezda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Filip Halabrin 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Dubočica asked and Motor Lublin 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dejan Milićević, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Vojvodina 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.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
Belts tighten at Dubočica
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Dubočica
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Stoco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dubočica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Emmanuel Dzigbah 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Viktor Živojinović, and the manager let it.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages swallow 110% of the Dubočica 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Issiaka Dembele is on it.