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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
Nobody at Diosgyor 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.
“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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Cipf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
47 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
This is not rotation. Marco Lund has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Diosgyor is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Bonilla 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.
Position 5 on 47 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Peter Ambrose trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 47 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gábor Megyeri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Diosgyor 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 Diosgyor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Péter Beke’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Diosgyor.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Croizet-Kollár 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Igor Jeličić and Diosgyor agree another 4 years.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Bonilla 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.
Marked 7.90 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Diosgyor had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Szabolcs Kleinheisler kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Diosgyor 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Csákvár waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Diosgyor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Diosgyor and Nyíregyháza have settled on $1.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Diosgyor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Aboubakar Keïta 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Ivan Šaponjić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.65. 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.
0‑3 against Puskas Akademia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Diosgyor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Diosgyor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Diosgyor can tell you which week it ends in.
Marco Lund 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Bonilla 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.
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.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dávid Banai has, at Diosgyor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Ákos Kecskés 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubakar Keïta 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Diosgyor has been clear about where Yohan Croizet-Kollár stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.
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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aboubakar Keïta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Richardson Rivas 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Szabolcs Kleinheisler could afford to be generous.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yohan Croizet-Kollár and Diosgyor agree another 2 years.
Marco Lund 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.
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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Diosgyor told Igor Jeličić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Diosgyor will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
ETO Győr go through and Diosgyor go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The shirt still fits. Gábor Molnár is back at Diosgyor, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Ákos Kecskés 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 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.09, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florijan Mežnar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Péter Beke is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paksi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Diosgyor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Péter Beke trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aboubakar Keïta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
“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 dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Szabolcs Kleinheisler was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Diosgyor dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florijan Mežnar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Diosgyor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yohan Croizet-Kollár was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ákos Kecskés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Laszlo 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. Szabolcs Gulacsi 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Zoltan Kleinheisler has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Diosgyor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ákos Kecskés's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Diosgyor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Nyíregyháza drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kisvárda have kept their man, and Diosgyor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aboubakar Keïta 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.
The phone has started ringing about Gábor Megyeri again, and this time the name on the line is Puskas Akademia. Diosgyor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Bence Pethő 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.
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. Diosgyor will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ante Roguljić signs something — a contract at Diosgyor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
$2.2M on the table at Wolfsberger AC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Ákos Kecskés 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.
$76.0K was the most the club would pay and Vasas were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tigre have kept their man, and Diosgyor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Diosgyor know which stage they are at.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $111.2K — a club that wants Norbert Gera enough to be asked twice.
$91.0K on the table at Szeged-Csanád GA. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álex Vallejo, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bence Pethő 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Diosgyor has been clear about where Márk Mucsányi stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Vukašin Topić 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Bence Pethő 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.
Something was said to Igor Jeličić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yohan Croizet-Kollár and Diosgyor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Álex Vallejo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Márk Mucsányi 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Diosgyor, another week without a signature from Álex Vallejo.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Máté Deczki trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Diosgyor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Diosgyor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marco Lund 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Petar Antonić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
49 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Máté Deczki trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Diosgyor 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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Diosgyor the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
SquadÁkos Kecskés is the talk of the training ground
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Diosgyor can pretend not to have heard.
Álex Vallejo 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Petar Antonić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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.
Position 4, 49 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Diosgyor the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Bence Pethő 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Diosgyor has been clear about where Bence Pethő stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Marco Lund 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Szabolcs Kleinheisler after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
That is the business done at Diosgyor until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdán Bánhegyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Diosgyor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marco Lund has his answer from Diosgyor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The young player of the month award goes to a 22-year-old at Diosgyor who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Máté Deczki will call it something else in private.
Vukašin Topić is 20, and Diosgyor have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Vuk Boškan
Position 3 and 43 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Vuk Boškan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 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.
“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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Álex Vallejo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vuk Boškan. 2‑0 against Mezőkövesd, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Máté Deczki
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Szabolcs Kleinheisler could afford to be generous.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
4 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.
Ákos Kecskés 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.
He is 21 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Szabolcs Kleinheisler left the room before anybody could ask which.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Diosgyor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Diosgyor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with MTK Budapest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 Diosgyor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yohan Croizet-Kollár was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. DAC Dunajska Streda have kept their man, and Diosgyor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The name of Márk Mucsányi has come up in conversations Diosgyor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 35 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
This is not rotation. Ágoston Bényei has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Diosgyor is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Croizet-Kollár 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
György Hursán 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 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.
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.
Minute 90, against Szentlőrinc, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Alex Lacza 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.
Nobody at Diosgyor 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nfansu Njie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdán Bánhegyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Diosgyor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Álex Vallejo 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.
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.
Something was said to Igor Jeličić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marco Lund is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Levente Vágó’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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Diosgyor would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Diosgyor will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Honved had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Diosgyor did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Vuk Boškan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Diosgyor.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Esiti 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.
Bence Pethő 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marco Lund is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Szabolcs Kleinheisler on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Bence Bárdos
7.81, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdán Bánhegyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Diosgyor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ákos Kecskés 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.
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.
At 22 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.
Three points for Diosgyor, 2‑0 the final word against Paksi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Szabolcs Kleinheisler kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Position 3, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Esiti 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.
Bence Pethő 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Szabolcs Kleinheisler chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Diosgyor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Croizet-Kollár 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ante Roguljić. 2‑1 against Tiszakécske, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Diosgyor, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Diosgyor can pretend not to have heard.
Álex Vallejo 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.
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.
Diosgyor asked and Szentlőrinc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 6.37 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Vuk Boškan decided nobody was going anywhere. Szentlőrinc had no time left to answer.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“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.
Álex Vallejo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Croizet-Kollár 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.
At 22 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$49.0K settles it between the clubs for Levente Vágó
Szeged-Csanád GA have accepted the money. What Diosgyor do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The bid was some way short and Diosgyor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Diosgyor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Croizet-Kollár 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.
Csaba Szatmári 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.
“I watch every Diosgyor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Honved runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Diosgyor 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Peter Ambrose's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Diosgyor have done the hard part with Kecskeméti TE, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Szeged-Csanád GA have kept their man, and Diosgyor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Máté Sajbán, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Diosgyor 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.
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.
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.