The deal with Ferencvaros 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.
Đorđe Gordić 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Debrecen can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 46 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Wesley Pomba 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 Bohdan Liedniev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Debrecen 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leon Myrtaj has his answer from Debrecen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
109 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 110th minute. Ujpest will replay every second of the added time for a week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Debrecen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Wesley Pomba 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 Bohdan Liedniev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Two goals and a mark of 9.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andras Kleinheisler provided it, and the 9.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
A brace, and Leon Myrtaj takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leon Myrtaj provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Debrecen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Debrecen have done the hard part with Dinamo Bucharest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Debrecen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with Ferencvaros, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Bálint Komáromi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Debrecen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The phone has started ringing about Đorđe Kukolj again, and this time the name on the line is Ujpest. Debrecen are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Liedniev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Honved; Debrecen go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Debrecen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Víctor Camarasa 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Wesley Pomba 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. Ahrobiznes have kept their man, and Debrecen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Debrecen have made the call to Racing Genk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Athletic Bilbao: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
The dugoutĐorđe Gordić has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Debrecen 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 Wesley Pomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.