Marked for Bertalan Kun
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Feb 2030
28 days out for Veljko Đorđević after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Paksi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match9 Feb 2030
9 matches without a win for Paksi
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Paksi are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Feb 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paksi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bertalan Kun and Paksi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Paksi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gábor Vas 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 Feb 2030
The goals have deserted Paksi
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Paksi can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Paksi asked and Diosgyor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Feb 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Aug 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Aug 2029
Bertalan Kun has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ZTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market27 Aug 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ETO Győr have kept their man, and ZTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Aug 2029
A row about effort at ZTE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladyslav Kochergin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. ZTE will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
ZTE have made the call to Arka Gdynia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Aboubakar Keïta
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The dugout
José Calderón has become a man the manager trusts
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Market
Experience through the door at ZTE
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Jul 2029
Nobody wins at ZTE
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ZTE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Jul 2029
The wait goes on for ZTE
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.
Market30 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ZTE may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Jul 2029
Ilyes Maali 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 ZTE can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Jul 2029
Bertalan Kun has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ZTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Tempers go at ZTE
Tyrese Campbell 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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
6 academy players handed senior numbers at ZTE
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market2 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market2 Jul 2029
ZTE spend $1.3M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.3M has been paid because Ádám Varga is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market2 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Bertalan Kun
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bertalan Kun will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ZTE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Danilo Mitrović
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. ZTE will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and ZTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Lucas Alfonso 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.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Balázs Tóth is in the works
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Boardroom
ZTE sign 6 boys into the academy
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The dugout
Danilo Mitrović gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jun 2029
Ujpest come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and ZTE did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Jun 2029
The name of Tyrese Campbell has come up in conversations ZTE were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ZTE can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Tempers go at ZTE
Tyrese Campbell 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grenoble Foot 38 have kept their man, and ZTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Aboubakar Keïta 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Aboubakar Keïta is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Too much change too quickly at ZTE
9 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 May 2029
Mariano Gómez 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.
Squad7 May 2029
A falling-out at ZTE
Nimród Baranyai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom7 May 2029
ZTE release $2.3M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Loan watch7 May 2029
12 appearances at Guarani and the goals keep coming. ZTE are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout7 May 2029
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 Danilo Mitrović is on it.
Squad7 May 2029
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at ZTE than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market7 May 2029
The Žan Mauricio story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Žan Mauricio signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad7 May 2029
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and ZTE will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for Bertalan Kun
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bertalan Kun will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ZTE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Barnabás Németh and ZTE agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A row about effort at ZTE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A falling-out at ZTE
Nimród Baranyai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Danilo Mitrović has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at ZTE 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 dugout9 Apr 2029
András Csonka knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ZTE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
8 appearances at Guarani and the goals keep coming. ZTE are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market9 Apr 2029
The Žan Mauricio story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Žan Mauricio signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
30 starts and a season average of 6.74. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Bertalan Kun
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bertalan Kun will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ZTE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Tempers go at ZTE
Mariano Gómez 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 dugout12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Žan Mauricio, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ZTE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Mar 2029
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and ZTE will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Danilo Mitrović has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at ZTE 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
No place for Ilyes Maali in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ZTE are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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.
Market12 Mar 2029
The Žan Mauricio story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Žan Mauricio signs something — a contract at ZTE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tiszakécske waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ZTE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market12 Feb 2029
ZTE say no — this time
The offer from Puskas Akademia for Alex Hrabina 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ZTE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Tempers go at ZTE
Fabricio Amato 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Mariano Gómez 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 2029
ZTE asked and Sogndal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ZTE are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
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 Danilo Mitrović is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Feb 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ZTE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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 ZTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Fabricio Amato has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at ZTE is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at ZTE 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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ZTE have done the hard part with OGC Nice, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
No thanks: Nemanja Kalat rejects the move
ZTE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Szeged-Csanád GA, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ZTE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at ZTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Gómez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tiszakécske have kept their man, and ZTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Jan 2029
ZTE are top
45 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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 ZTE, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
The paperwork begins on Ádám Czékus
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ZTE have done the hard part with Kecskeméti TE, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at ZTE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Gómez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and ZTE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market22 Jan 2029
Gleofilo signs for ZTE to fix the gap everybody could see
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Gleofilo arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
Market22 Jan 2029
Add another name to the list: Bekescsaba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bertalan Kun. The answer from ZTE has not changed — yet.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A falling-out at ZTE
Bence Szabó and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
A loan move for Nino is in the works
ZTE have made the call to Akhmat Grozny. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Jan 2029
Still nobody has beaten ZTE
The unbeaten run reaches 22. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Žan Mauricio decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match13 Jan 2029
Cup progress for ZTE
A 0‑0 win over Kazincbarcika, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market15 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ZTE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Budafoki MTE, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match13 Jan 2029
No end in sight to ZTE's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ZTE has to find a result from somewhere.
Market15 Jan 2029
ZTE say no — this time
The offer from Honved for Alex Hrabina 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ZTE may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Luka Laban out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ZTE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ZTE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Tempers go at ZTE
Tyrese Campbell 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market11 Sep 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at ZTE heard it as anything else.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A row about effort at ZTE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Sep 2028
35 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.