The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Szeged-Csanád GA have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Nyíregyháza for János Takács 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Furtula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Szeged-Csanád GA will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Szeged-Csanád GA has been clear about where Ákos Onódi stands, which is more than many ever get.
The offer from Csákvár for Ákos Onódi 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.
Ognjen Ilić 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.
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.
The name of János Takács has come up in conversations Szeged-Csanád GA were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 Dániel Veszelinov is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ádám Halmai 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 Nikola Furtula signs something — a contract at Szeged-Csanád GA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 5, 47 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Szeged-Csanád GA people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Ognjen Ilić 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. Predrag Popadić 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Ádám Halmai is on 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 Szeged-Csanád GA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 Szeged-Csanád GA can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Debrecen for János Takács 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 are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Szeged-Csanád GA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Szeged-Csanád GA 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bence Pávkovics trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Szeged-Csanád GA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ognjen Ilić 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.
Szeged-Csanád GA asked and Diosgyor 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 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.
The phone has started ringing about János Takács again, and this time the name on the line is Debrecen. Szeged-Csanád GA are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Dániel Veszelinov is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Furtula signs something — a contract at Szeged-Csanád GA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 5, 47 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Szeged-Csanád GA have had the benefit of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Szeged-Csanád GA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 5, 47 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Szeged-Csanád GA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Szeged-Csanád GA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ognjen Ilić 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 Predrag Popadić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Dániel Veszelinov is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Benjamin Tetteh signs something — a contract at Szeged-Csanád GA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Márton Sándor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Dávid Márkvárt 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Szeged-Csanád GA will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad17 Apr 2028
18 new faces, and Szeged-Csanád GA 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA 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 Szeged-Csanád GA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bence Pávkovics and Szeged-Csanád GA agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Szeged-Csanád GA 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.
In brief
The dugoutDávid Márkvárt asks for a word with the manager
Ognjen Ilić 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.
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.
Jazzy Tavitian is 18, and Szeged-Csanád GA have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA 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.
“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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Szeged-Csanád GA 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 Benjamin Tetteh signs something — a contract at Szeged-Csanád GA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutJános Takács asks for a word with the manager
Ognjen Ilić 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
10 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.
Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szabolcs Mádi 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.
47 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 47 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Benjamin Tetteh provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Szeged-Csanád GA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Norbert Gulacsi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Konstantinos Makridis has just signed for Szeged-Csanád GA, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dávid Márkvárt and Szeged-Csanád GA agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Istvan Nikolic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
10 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
Dávid Márkvárt 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.
At 22 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” László Sztankó and Szeged-Csanád GA agree another 4 years.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Szeged-Csanád GA has to find a result from somewhere.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Szeged-Csanád GA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA can tell you which week it ends in.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dávid Márkvárt.
7 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Szeged-Csanád GA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ognjen Ilić 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Popadić 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ofer Gelbard and Szeged-Csanád GA agree another 4 years.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Szeged-Csanád GA has to find a result from somewhere.
Dávid Márkvárt 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.
At 22 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Nemanja Kalat was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Soroksár scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The offer from Puskas Akademia for Norbert Gera 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Szeged-Csanád GA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Istvan Nikolic after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Szeged-Csanád GA, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Szeged-Csanád GA have had the benefit of it.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Márton Sándor and Szeged-Csanád GA agree another 4 years.
The first defeat in 23 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against BVSC-Zugló; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
36 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Szeged-Csanád GA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nikola Furtula 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA 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 words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Benjamin Tetteh provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ajka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamin Tetteh and Szeged-Csanád GA agree another 3 years.
Benjamin Tetteh 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 Ognjen Ilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Szeged-Csanád GA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Ognjen Ilić 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 Predrag Popadić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Furtula signs something — a contract at Szeged-Csanád GA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ognjen Ilić 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.
Mykhaylo Ryashko 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ognjen Ilić. 1‑0 against Tiszakécske, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Istvan Nikolic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Szeged-Csanád GA have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Richárd Rabatin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Szeged-Csanád GA needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nikola Furtula 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I watch every Szeged-Csanád GA game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kazincbarcika runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Honved spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.