At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taras Zaviyskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Milan Valjent could afford to be generous.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at FC Košice 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pohronie moved on, Šimon Sabolčík reports back to FC Košice, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
FC Košice asked and Viktoria Plzen 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 Osman Kakay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Osman Kakay has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Košice people have started saying his name in the past tense.
FC Košice had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mlada Boleslav, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice 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 Sebastián Kóša was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and FC Košice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Daniel Magda again, and this time the name on the line is MFK Michalovce. FC Košice are listening politely and promising nothing.
0‑3 against MSK Zilina, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomáš Jelínek is living that version at FC Košice, and it tends to show in the first month.
FC Košice had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slavia Prague, 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 Mátyás Kovács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.