Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Đurić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mezőkövesd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Mezőkövesd know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Blendi Idrizi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Mezőkövesd 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mezőkövesd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Mezőkövesd 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 Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mezőkövesd told Viktor Csörgő something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Lajos Bertus 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.
Nobody at Mezőkövesd 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.
Viktor Csörgő 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Blendi Idrizi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jovan Mitrović 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 Blendi Idrizi signs something — a contract at Mezőkövesd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new face in his position, and Blendi Idrizi suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Mezőkövesd have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mezőkövesd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dimitris Tsantilas has just signed for Mezőkövesd, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lajos Bertus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mezőkövesd, another week without a signature from Matija Ljujić.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mezőkövesd is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Mezőkövesd
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mezőkövesd 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 Blendi Idrizi 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 Mezőkövesd know it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Zoltán Varjas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gergő Csatári trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mezőkövesd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mezőkövesd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Mezőkövesd 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.
Mezőkövesd asked and Kisvárda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody at Mezőkövesd saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Gergő Csatári 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 Blendi Idrizi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Mezőkövesd 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mezőkövesd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mezőkövesd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A brace, and Kevin Kántor takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Kántor provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zoltán Varjas 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mezőkövesd told Jovan Mitrović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kisvárda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Tony Varjund 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Blendi Idrizi 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.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Mezőkövesd would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mezőkövesd, another week without a signature from Mattia Attinasi.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mezőkövesd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ádám Pintér was one of the reasons people came, and $2.1M does not replace that by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yevhenii Harmash has, at Mezőkövesd, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Mezőkövesd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blendi Idrizi 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. Kecskeméti TE have kept their man, and Mezőkövesd go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mezőkövesd 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 Luka Savić signs something — a contract at Mezőkövesd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.