Marked for Gergő Bodnár
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Honved
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Bálint Szabó: 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.” Honved have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Aug 2028
Márk Szelényi 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 Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Aug 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A performance of 8.71 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Gergő Bodnár 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
Honved share the spoils with Paksi
A 1‑1 draw with Paksi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Danila Bokov
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Boardroom
Honved keep producing them
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Honved
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 30, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A one-man rearguard from Danila Bokov
There were 7 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.
Market7 Aug 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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Aug 2028
The fee is $480.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. MTK Budapest drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gergő Bodnár and Honved agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Honved
Dominik Kocsis 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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Honved
Miguel Medina 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Mads Nielsen 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
The penny has dropped for Gergő Bodnár
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Honved the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Gergő Bodnár has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ujpest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jan 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Miron Mucsányi has come up in conversations Ujpest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 118% of everything Ujpest 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Arijan Ademi 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
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
Pál Helmich 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 Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jan 2027
Honved come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ujpest did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Ujpest have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bence Gergényi has his answer from Ujpest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Aljoša Matko 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.