60 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.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Teun De Jong obliged against MTK Budapest. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Ujpest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marked 8.31 — 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 goal that put Haladas ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Ujpest equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
67 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Nov 2040
A brace, and Teun De Jong takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Teun De Jong provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
74 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 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kolen Onder. 3‑1 against Bekescsaba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Simon Couillot 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.
81 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
88 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
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.
102 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.
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.
Lucas Barbosa 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.
Squad15 Oct 2040
Zétény Varga 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.
109 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ujpest and Fehervar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Adam Lang 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.
116 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.88 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
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.
10 goals in one match, Teun De Jong on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ujpest and Vasas.
123 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stanislav Krystin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Sep 2040
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joffrey Ngambaka Nguba 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ujpest told Lachezar Ivanov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
130 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.
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.
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 8.06 — 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.
Nobody at Ujpest 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.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
137 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 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Adam Lang 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Tamás Batai had Ujpest level again within 2 minutes, and Haladas never got to play with a lead at all.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad10 Sep 2040
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jürgen Jäger 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.
144 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.
“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. Szabolcs Sallai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Michael Kalajdzic 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 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 ratingsNinety minutes of Teun De Jong at his very best
151 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Teun De Jong again, and this time the name on the line is Vasas. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Add another name to the list: Diosgyor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabor Bese. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
Squad13 Aug 2040
Tamás Batai 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Nobody at Ujpest 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bence Sallai has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The name of Gabor Bese has come up in conversations Ujpest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad2 Jul 2040
Tamás Batai 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
In brief
SquadKolen Onder has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Paksi for Adam Lang 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Teun De Jong again, and this time the name on the line is Haladas. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad25 Jun 2040
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamás Batai 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Haladas will make the call about Teun De Jong this week. Ujpest have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad18 Jun 2040
Zétény Varga 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.
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.
48 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tiago Gonçalves 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Ujpest training over how hard people work
76 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
In brief
SquadWords at Ujpest training over how hard people work
104 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
132 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.
“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. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Feb 2040
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamás Batai 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.
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.
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.
146 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bence Sallai has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Tiago Gonçalves 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.
Squad6 Feb 2040
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamás Batai 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.
160 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Jan 2040
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zétény Varga 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.
103 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
124 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ujpest scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Vasas made Ujpest work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Dec 2039
Kolen Onder was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Squad19 Dec 2039
Tamás Batai 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 words a physio says slowly. 152 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.
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.
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.
1‑2 to MTK Budapest, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Nov 2039
7 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.
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.
94 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad14 Nov 2039
Tamás Batai 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 words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ujpest can tell you which week it ends in.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamás Batai 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.
Squad24 Oct 2039
7 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tiago Gonçalves signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Teun De Jong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zétény Varga. 3‑1 against Paksi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Sep 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamás Batai 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 easiest signature of my career.” Bence Kleinheisler and Ujpest agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Sep 2039
7 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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrii Pustovit is living that version at Ujpest, and it tends to show in the first month.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ujpest will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Zétény Varga 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The phone has started ringing about Gabor Bese again, and this time the name on the line is Diosgyor. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 at Ujpest 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Add another name to the list: Honved have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Lang. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
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.
Artem Nagaitsev 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 at Ujpest 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.
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Vasas for Teun De Jong 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 Ujpest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Joffrey Ngambaka Nguba’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ujpest.
Squad15 Aug 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joffrey Ngambaka Nguba 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.
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.
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.
415 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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.
Ujpest moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Bence Sallai, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
12 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Add another name to the list: Diosgyor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Teun De Jong. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Attila Szalai is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Janos Orban has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
SquadWords at Ujpest training over how hard people work
“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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Artem Nagaitsev 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.
In brief
Boardroom85% of the income goes out in wages at Ujpest
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Teun De Jong again, and this time the name on the line is Haladas. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
A conversation is coming this week. Ujpest will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad4 Jul 2039
7 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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Janos Sallai has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Add another name to the list: Honved have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabor Bese. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
Nobody at Ujpest 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.
Artem Nagaitsev 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.
Squad27 Jun 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harry Lee 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
Tiago Gonçalves 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Artem Nagaitsev has just signed for Ujpest, and for once the answer mattered.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Vasas will make the call about Gabor Bese this week. Ujpest have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad6 Jun 2039
7 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.
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.
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.
Squad11 Apr 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aljoša Matko 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.
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.
“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 Aljoša Matko signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
Nobody at Ujpest 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.
20 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.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2039
Aljoša Matko 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.
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.
27 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dino Budimir will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ujpest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal that would have taken Bistra Milanov to Vasas has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Ujpest with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The phone has started ringing about Teun De Jong again, and this time the name on the line is Fehervar. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Feb 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joffrey Ngambaka Nguba 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.
34 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Honved have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Lang. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
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.
30 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.
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.
Adam Lang 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.
Squad10 Jan 2039
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Gonçalves 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.