Marked for Viktor Botka
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
$710.0K from Honved for Janos Szalai. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Haladas sell a favourite for $710.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Janos Szalai was one of the reasons people came, and $710.0K does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Dynamo Kyiv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
No deal for Fady Khatir at that price
Haladas offered $700.0K; Fehervar said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Laurenzo Monteiro is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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Squad28 Jun 2027
At 31 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad28 Jun 2027
61 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Haladas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Haladas sell a favourite for $200.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dominik Varga was one of the reasons people came, and $200.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Haladas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Paksi drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Viktor Fiola 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edoardo Vascotto and Haladas agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Róbert Litauszki
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haladas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 May 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Haladas will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Haladas
Gerardo Montanari 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.
Squad31 May 2027
A move Dilan López would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dilan López is living that version at Haladas, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout31 May 2027
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The dugout31 May 2027
David Fiola gets picked when it counts
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 David Fiola is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Haladas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 May 2027
A falling-out at Haladas
Xavier Dziekoński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Fiola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
Gabor Fiola has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Haladas 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.
Match17 May 2027
Haladas in the hunt for Europe
Position 5, 32 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.
Market17 May 2027
The David Fiola story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Fiola signs something — a contract at Haladas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Róbert Litauszki damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Market3 May 2027
“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 Haladas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Haladas
Gerardo Montanari 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.
Squad3 May 2027
37 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout3 May 2027
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Squad3 May 2027
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Fiola 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Róbert Litauszki damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
Viktor Botka hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haladas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Fiola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Viktor Fiola gets picked when it counts
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 Viktor Fiola is on it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
Market26 Apr 2027
Peter Fiola linked with a move away
The name of Peter Fiola keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Haladas say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Krisztian Lang knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Haladas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Haladas board put their names to it
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The dugout
Viktor Botka keeps his manager's vote
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Róbert Litauszki damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Haladas
Xavier Dziekoński 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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Squad5 Apr 2027
Viktor Fiola 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
David Fiola gets picked when it counts
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 David Fiola is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Róbert Litauszki damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Haladas
Xavier Dziekoński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Viktor Fiola gets picked when it counts
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 Viktor Fiola is on it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karamba Diaby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market29 Mar 2027
The Laszlo Orban talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Haladas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Róbert Litauszki
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haladas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Haladas
Xavier Dziekoński 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Róbert Litauszki and Haladas agree another 2 years.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Róbert Litauszki, and the manager let it.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
$3.8M on the table at Haladas
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
When it matters, David Fiola plays
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karamba Diaby was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Viktor Fiola’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Róbert Litauszki damages knee ligaments — 127 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Róbert Litauszki: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Haladas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Fiola 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
Gabor Fiola has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Haladas 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.
Match22 Feb 2027
Haladas in the hunt for Europe
Position 5, 32 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Róbert Litauszki
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haladas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Dominik Varga to Honved has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Haladas with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Haladas
Xavier Dziekoński 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A move Noah Leembruggen would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Noah Leembruggen is living that version at Haladas, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Diosgyor will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Márk Kristóf has pre-agreed a move to Haladas, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Fiola 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Haladas
Gerardo Montanari 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Haladas asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Fiola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to PAOK: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
CSKA Moscow have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Haladas are still strangers to each other
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Adam Bese told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Adam Bese has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Haladas.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
When it matters, David Nagy plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dominik Varga had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Krisztian Lang: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Haladas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gerardo Montanari 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MTK Budapest have kept their man, and Haladas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Haladas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Fiola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jules Collet and Haladas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to CSKA Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Dec 2026
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Istvan Dibusz
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haladas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Dec 2026
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Laszlo Orban and Haladas agree another 3 years.
Match12 Dec 2026
Bekescsaba made Haladas work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Janos Szalai in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Haladas's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Haladas has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Lang and Haladas agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haladas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Viktor Fiola 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Norbert Szoboszlai was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Haladas dressing room was either.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Viktor Fiola has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Haladas 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Haladas
Peter Fiola 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
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The dugout16 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Fiola 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
When it matters, Peter Fiola plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match26 Aug 2026
Haladas out of the cup
Ujpest ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Haladas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Haladas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Dominik Varga yet — 7.81
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Viktoria Plzen is saying, and nobody at Haladas is enjoying the guessing.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Haladas
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Haladas are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Viktor Fiola 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 49. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
Viktor Botka hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Haladas can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Haladas
David Nagy 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Viktor Fiola 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Krisztian Lang and Haladas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Haladas get the job done against Vasas
A 2‑0 win over Vasas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.