Marked for Joan Raynaud
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Apr 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at BVSC-Zugló, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at BVSC-Zugló can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at BVSC-Zugló training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ognjen Ilić 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BVSC-Zugló this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
BVSC-Zugló can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at BVSC-Zugló, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Marcell Herczeg
“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.
Market30 Apr 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Noah Zilliox may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market30 Apr 2029
The Joan Raynaud talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. BVSC-Zugló know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout26 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Sten Teunissen has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at BVSC-Zugló is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Roland Lehoczky 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A row about effort at BVSC-Zugló
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kornél Csernik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 Mar 2029
The Eduvie Ikoba talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. BVSC-Zugló know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Carbone trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Mar 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Noah Zilliox may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Mar 2029
BVSC-Zugló finish in position 15
20 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Match10 Mar 2029
The wait goes on for BVSC-Zugló
6 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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Noah Zilliox has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at BVSC-Zugló is pretending otherwise.
Match10 Mar 2029
Yann Vyxienh scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Bekescsaba, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at BVSC-Zugló training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roland Lehoczky 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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Roland Lehoczky
“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.
Match10 Mar 2029
BVSC-Zugló hit back inside 1 minutes
Bekescsaba held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. BVSC-Zugló answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Words exchanged at BVSC-Zugló
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Márk Engedi's mistake
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2028
Roland Lehoczky and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Kornél Csernik 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.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Krsta Đorđević’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and BVSC-Zugló needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout20 Nov 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 BVSC-Zugló, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market20 Nov 2028
The Eduvie Ikoba story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eduvie Ikoba signs something — a contract at BVSC-Zugló or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market20 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at BVSC-Zugló, another week without a signature from Petar Marković.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
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.
Market20 Nov 2028
The shop window has Noah Zilliox in it
BVSC-Zugló have let the market know Noah Zilliox can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market20 Nov 2028
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs BVSC-Zugló money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Aug 2028
Krisztian Lisztes damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for BVSC-Zugló
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Roland Lehoczky and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joan Raynaud is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
The numbers do not look good at BVSC-Zugló
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“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 BVSC-Zugló know it.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
BVSC-Zugló asked and Tekstilac Odžaci 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 dugout21 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Krisztián Székely has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at BVSC-Zugló is pretending otherwise.
Match19 Aug 2028
0‑1 to Csákvár, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Miljan Krpić again, and this time the name on the line is Ferencvaros. BVSC-Zugló are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Aleksandar Đukanović has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at BVSC-Zugló is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The deal with Bekescsaba 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Ognjen Ilić 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 BVSC-Zugló this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Joan Raynaud arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Joan Raynaud has, at BVSC-Zugló, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at BVSC-Zugló training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miljan Krpić 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
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Squad
7 new faces, and BVSC-Zugló are still learning each other
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Transfer targets
A loan move for József Balázs is in the works
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The dugout
Ognjen Ilić without the man who signed him