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.
Diosgyor asked and Lokomotiv 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Máté Sajbán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Diosgyor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aboubakar Keïta signs something — a contract at Diosgyor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Karpaty keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
Diosgyor asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álex Vallejo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Diosgyor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Márk Tamás has written the date down.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Lamin Colley has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 The request is on a desk at Diosgyor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Paksi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ágoston Bényei. The answer from Diosgyor has not changed — yet.
Diosgyor asked and Debrecen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Diosgyor will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
MTK Budapest 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.
A loan enquiry to Vasas: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Ante Roguljić
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ante Roguljić has come out of that comparison in the side, and Diosgyor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dávid Gróf’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Diosgyor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Diosgyor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Puskas Akademia moved on, Ante Roguljić reports back to Diosgyor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Blendi Idrizi