5 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.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Bence Daru scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Kozármisleny, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Dejan Đurić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. UTA Arad have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nándor Kóródi, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Feb 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 1‑3 Viktor Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bekescsaba told Áron Papp something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Áron Papp 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Mezőkövesd the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Bekescsaba will enjoy reviewing.
Richárd Zsolnai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Dejan Đurić 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.
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 new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 2‑1 win over Szeged-Csanád GA, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 20 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.75 on the card, and the Bekescsaba support went home talking about one name.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Fondja 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.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ridwan Popoola 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Dejan Đurić 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
8 new faces, and Bekescsaba 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bekescsaba has been clear about where Rajmund Schrenck stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bence Daru’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bekescsaba needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gergő Nagy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
Stefan Đurić 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bekescsaba 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.
Olympique Lyonnais 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Đurić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patrik András Pelles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 8 on 41 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Roland Vólent takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Roland Vólent provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Áron Papp 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Roland Vólent in the middle of it, and BVSC-Zugló unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.