Marked for Daniel Varga
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Marton Nagy decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad29 Nov 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Match24 Nov 2027
Haladas through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Honved, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marton Nagy and Haladas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.62, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match27 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Varga. 1‑0 against Ujpest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Oct 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Haladas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Haladas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Robert Piatek 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Haladas get the job done against Vasas
A 1‑0 win over Vasas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Haladas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
Janos Nikolic breaks a bone — 78 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match14 Aug 2027
Still nobody has beaten Haladas
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Honved made Haladas work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
At 21 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Naftan are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Haladas will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
David Sallai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Haladas have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market4 Jan 2027
Janos Sallai 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Robert Piatek 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.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Debrecen to sit and watch. I want to come back to Haladas and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
The goals keep arriving from Ciro Costa’s exile
10 goals in 18 games at Jagiellonia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Haladas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bence Botka 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Gabor Gazdag
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gabor Gazdag has come out of that comparison in the side, and Haladas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Nov 2026
Haladas throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Diosgyor the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Haladas will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Robert Piatek 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Bence Botka 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Diosgyor leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marton Nagy 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
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Haladas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Puskas Akademia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Norbert Szélpál delivers — 7.63
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Norbert Szélpál scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Haladas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Norbert Szélpál 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Fehervar made Haladas work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.66 on the card, and the Haladas support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Oct 2026
Haladas are in real trouble now
Position 11, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market12 Oct 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Robert Piatek 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Debrecen to sit and watch. I want to come back to Haladas and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bence Botka 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Haladas
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Haladas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Sep 2026
Daniel Varga scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Diosgyor, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Daniil Denisov
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.46 — 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Daniil Denisov
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Haladas will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market7 Sep 2026
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.