Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Charles Grimaud will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Petržalka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lukáš Penxa 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 Pavel Halouska 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.
Pavel Halouska 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Petržalka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Panchout 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Michael Hönig has written the date down.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Petržalka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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. DAC Dunajska Streda have kept their man, and Petržalka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Petržalka 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.” Petržalka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lukáš Penxa 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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Halouska was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Petržalka asked and Volna 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oliver Reiter. 1‑0 against Tatran Liptovský Mikuláš, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ondrej Gyomber could afford to be generous.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simen Østerud did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pavel Halouska 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Petržalka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Špiriak 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Petržalka can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
$1.6M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
He is going to Slovan Bratislava, the club has $1.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dávid Ovšonka has just signed for Petržalka, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Petržalka, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lukáš Penxa 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.
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. Pribram have kept their man, and Petržalka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Slovan Liberec: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Malženice can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Malženice had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Add another name to the list: KFC Komárno have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuel Šamaj. The answer from Malženice has not changed — yet.
Malženice asked and Spartak Trnava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Malženice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marek Fábry 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.
Samuel Balica 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.
“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; Malženice are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malženice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Marek Fábry 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.
“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 Malženice know it.
“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 dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Artem Tyshchuk'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.
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 Malženice, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Slovan Bratislava U21 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malženice 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 Marek Fábry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Malženice scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Viktor Sliacky 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Malženice is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Malženice asked and Spartak Trnava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Malženice, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Malženice until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Viktor Sliacky 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.
Malženice asked and Tatran Prešov 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 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Malženice know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Malženice is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Everything agreed with Spartak Trnava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Malženice had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Trencin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marek Fábry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Dukla Banská Bystrica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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 Malženice, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malženice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$250.0K was the most the club would pay and DAC Dunajska Streda 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFC Komárno have kept their man, and Malženice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 Malženice, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Malženice is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Malženice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
DAC Dunajska Streda wanted more than $250.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Malženice now.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Malženice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marek Fábry 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martin Turanský 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 Malženice is running low.
Miha Kompan Breznik 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Malženice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marek Fábry 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.
Nobody at Malženice 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Dávid Ovšonka has written the date down.