Marked for Nabil Atal
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Diosgyor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 May 2030
Yohan Croizet-Kollár 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.
Squad13 May 2030
Anderson Esiti 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 dugout13 May 2030
“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.
Squad13 May 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tom Berkovic and Diosgyor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 May 2030
“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; Diosgyor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout13 May 2030
Álex Bermejo 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 Diosgyor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market13 May 2030
The clock does Aboubakar Keïta’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Diosgyor could ask drops and the wages Aboubakar Keïta can ask rise.
Market13 May 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anderson Esiti signs something — a contract at Diosgyor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Mar 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gratas Sirgėdas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Diosgyor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Diosgyor
Aleksandar Ćirković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A row about effort at Diosgyor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Esiti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Mar 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Diosgyor know it.
Market18 Mar 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anderson Esiti signs something — a contract at Diosgyor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
Szilárd Bokros 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 Diosgyor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Mar 2030
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Diosgyor money.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
Josh Keyes has been promised minutes
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 Josh Keyes has written the date down.
Market18 Mar 2030
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Marton Szalai leaves Diosgyor the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Feb 2030
Only the photograph left for Álex Bermejo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Álex Bermejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Diosgyor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Diosgyor ran out of time with Ujpest. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Aleksandar Ćirković 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Šaponjić 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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
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 dugout11 Feb 2030
Álex Bermejo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álex Bermejo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Balazs Gazdag, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Fehervar, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Álex Vallejo 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 Diosgyor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Diosgyor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Šaponjić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Diosgyor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
The manager makes an example of Gábor Király
“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.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
Balazs Gazdag 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 Diosgyor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Jan 2030
No place for Nabil Atal in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Diosgyor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market21 Jan 2030
The name of Anderson Esiti keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Diosgyor say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad21 Jan 2030
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Diosgyor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jan 2030
“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 Diosgyor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“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.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Ivan Šaponjić 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A move Nabil Atal 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. Nabil Atal is living that version at Diosgyor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Diosgyor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Esiti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
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.
Market14 Jan 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Ferencvaros 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.