There is no crueller way to lose a football match. ZTE scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ZTE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Florijan Mežnar did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ZTE have done the hard part with Heidenheim, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: András Németh. 3‑2 against MTK Budapest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ZTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Csákvár waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ZTE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ZTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Debrecen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ZTE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ZTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
ZTE asked and OFK Beograd said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Branimir Cipetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Jul 2029
9 new faces, and ZTE 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Luka Ivanušec is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Aleksa Maraš is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Anestis Mythou is in the works
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Debrecen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Csákvár waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Debrecen is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Budafoki MTE for István Katona was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Debrecen have done the hard part with ZTE, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$160.0K on the table at Kisvárda. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Botond Vajda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josua Mejías was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ZTE can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
$16.0K settles it between the clubs for Gergely Nagy
Fehervar have accepted the money. What ZTE do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The chase for Tibor Szabó ended with $300.0K changing hands and Honved out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
ZTE asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Félix Nzouango Bikien 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 Branimir Cipetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ZTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ZTE can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Alfonso 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Calderón signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch21 May 2029
Žan Mauricio’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 12 appearances at Spartak Trnava. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ZTE lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ZTE can pretend not to have heard.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Alfonso 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 ZTE 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ZTE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ZTE can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ZTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Alfonso 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Novaković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Calderón signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ZTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 ZTE, 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 ZTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Alfonso 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether ZTE can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. ZTE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Calderón signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Loan watchŽan Mauricio’s loan is measured in nothing happening
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ZTE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Nobody at ZTE 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Calderón signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. ZTE will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
$470.0K on the table at Fehervar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Alfonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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 ZTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ZTE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The phone has started ringing about Gergely Mim again, and this time the name on the line is Kecskeméti TE. ZTE are listening politely and promising nothing.
The deal with AEK is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Alfonso 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.
“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 ZTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ZTE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Puskas Akademia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Palkó Dárdai and ZTE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Lucas Alfonso 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.
Greg Docherty 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.
ZTE asked and MTK Budapest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every ZTE game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kecskeméti TE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at ZTE, and 5 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.78, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tiago Caballero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guzmán Rodríguez 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 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.
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.
1‑1 against Partizan, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Tiago Caballero was at the centre of the description.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ZTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guzmán Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 90, against Ferencvaros, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ZTE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Branimir Cipetić has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at ZTE.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Daniel Fiola for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. ZTE will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guzmán Rodríguez 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.
ZTE asked and UTA Arad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at ZTE.
Squad18 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and ZTE 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ZTE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ajka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ZTE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Add another name to the list: Ajka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Darío Bonilla. The answer from ZTE has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ZTE have done the hard part with Paksi, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kecskeméti TE paid $1.4M and ZTE took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guzmán Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Diosgyor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE 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 Guzmán Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 ZTE know it.
ZTE asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$14.7M on the table at Sabadell. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 ZTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Karcag for Márk Engedi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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; ZTE are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Branimir Cipetić 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.
ZTE asked and Barracas Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mezőkövesd had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ZTE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Kecskeméti TE for Dániel Németh was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Puskas Akademia is saying, and nobody at ZTE is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Branimir Cipetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
ZTE asked and Unión de Santa Fe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. ZTE have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
In brief
Squad11 new faces, and ZTE are still learning each other
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ZTE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA is saying, and nobody at ZTE is enjoying the guessing.
The chase for Kevin Mondovics ended with $1.6M changing hands and Puskas Akademia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE 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 Branimir Cipetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Branimir Cipetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at ZTE 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at ZTE. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 goals in 30 games at Karcag — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at ZTE updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and ZTE have no good answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Márk Engedi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Pedro Naressi
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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 Branimir Cipetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; ZTE are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 Apr 2028
9 new faces, and ZTE 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 watch every ZTE game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Samgurali Tskaltubo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Alen Skribek is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alen Skribek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tiszakécske can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ádám Bódi 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Tiszakécske training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Slobodan Sladojević 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ZTE have kept their man, and Tiszakécske go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tiszakécske, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 ZTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ZTE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ZTE can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Akpe Victory 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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. ZTE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ZTE, another week without a signature from Samuel Petráš.
In brief
The dugoutJosé Calderón knocks on the manager's door
114 minutes played. Marlon found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and MTK Budapest went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Kristoffer Zachariassen 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at ZTE, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
ETO Győr next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Roland Nagy after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadWords at ZTE training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Márk Engedi