The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ujpest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Francesco D'Alessio 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 Baton Zabërgja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Vladyslav Chympoiesh knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ujpest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Francesco D'Alessio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nimród Baranyai 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Levente Márta has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ujpest.
Squad11 Oct 2032
5 new faces, and Ujpest 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Ujpest know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ujpest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ujpest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nimród Baranyai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Karcag for Levente Márta 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.
“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 Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nimród Baranyai 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. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ujpest have made the call to Banik Ostrava. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ujpest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7.53, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ujpest and Szentlőrinc in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadMarino Gudelj arrives at the club he grew up with
SquadNimród Baranyai falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Qamar Adegoke will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Barnabás Németh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Muhamed Tijani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Luka Ilić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Levente Márta 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.
In brief
Player ratingsMihajlo Terzić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elijah Upson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nimród Baranyai 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.
Ujpest asked and Nyíregyháza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Barnabás Németh 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ujpest, another week without a signature from Patrizio Stronati.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Ujpest prefer.
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.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ujpest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nimród Baranyai 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 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings18 Aug 2031
Ciro Panico was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.86 for the rest of it.
Nimród Baranyai 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.
Marked 9.50 — 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Petrolul Ploiești have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Levente Márta 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Qamar Adegoke
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ujpest 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 Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Levente Márta 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.
7 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.
Ujpest have made the call to Hradec Králové. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Levente Márta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Qamar Adegoke will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Dominik Soltész 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levente Márta 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ujpest 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 Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nimród Baranyai 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part 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 Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
Nimród Baranyai 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 name of Patrick Gânţe has come up in conversations Ujpest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Levente Márta 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.
Ujpest have made the call to Ferencvaros. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nimród Baranyai 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mika Pieterse, and the manager let it.
Squad19 May 2031
Levente Márta 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.
The dugout19 May 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Levente Márta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Muhamed Tijani signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Levente Márta has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ujpest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dominik Soltész 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ujpest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mika Pieterse signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Ujpest will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Ujpest could ask drops and the wages Qamar Adegoke can ask rise.
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.
Qamar Adegoke 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Muhamed Tijani signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ujpest can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levente Márta 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jozef Špyrka has his answer from Ujpest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nimród Baranyai 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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mika Pieterse 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ujpest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Muhamed Tijani signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Máté Tóth is on 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 Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yacouba Silué will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nimród Baranyai 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Levente Márta 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.
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.
6 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.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Harm Jan Smits's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Georges is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yacouba Silué has his answer from Ujpest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.