Marked for Frédéric Robert
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Nov 2035
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Diogo Fernandes: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match31 Oct 2035
Cup progress for Kisvárda
A 0‑0 win over Honved, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Martin Henriksen Fosse scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
Frédéric Robert: 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.” Kisvárda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Stefan Nikolić 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.
Match3 Nov 2035
It finished 3‑2, and it was Yevhenii Harmash’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kisvárda.
The terraces5 Nov 2035
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
Ninety minutes of Yevhenii Harmash at his very best
Marked 8.33. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kisvárda.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Vyacheslav Kulbachuk 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 May 2035
Only the photograph left for Petar Đoković
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Petar Đoković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kisvárda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 May 2035
Words exchanged at Kisvárda
Yevhenii Harmash 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.
Squad21 May 2035
Christoph Gruber 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 dugout21 May 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Petar Đoković, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 May 2035
Till Cissokho has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Market21 May 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Diogo Fernandes signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 May 2035
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.
Market21 May 2035
The clock does Petar Đoković’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kisvárda could ask drops and the wages Petar Đoković can ask rise.
Squad21 May 2035
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Feb 2035
Only the photograph left for Dusan Grujic
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dusan Grujic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kisvárda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Aljaž Zabukovnik 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.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2035
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 dugout12 Feb 2035
“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.
Market12 Feb 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
Patrik Farkas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Market12 Feb 2035
The name of Marko Matanović keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kisvárda say nothing, which says plenty.
Market12 Feb 2035
The clock does Aljaž Zabukovnik’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kisvárda could ask drops and the wages Aljaž Zabukovnik can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Dec 2034
Samuel Greško 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 Kisvárda can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kisvárda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match9 Dec 2034
No end in sight to Kisvárda's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kisvárda has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Christoph Gruber has just signed for Kisvárda, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aljaž Zabukovnik 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.
Match9 Dec 2034
0‑2 to Ferencvaros, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
The manager makes an example of Boldizsár Rab
“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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2034
Wages swallow 97% of the Kisvárda income
Every club 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 it has been tried.