Position 15 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barna Tóth 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Paksi, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Gergő Gyurkits 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 had been thinking. Slobodan Sladojević 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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 The request is on a desk at Paksi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Daniel Arzani 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.
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
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 0‑1 Marton Gulacsi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Gergő Gyurkits 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 Petar Mićin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ákos Kinyik
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.
0‑1 to Debrecen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Marton Gulacsi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Something was said to Zsombor Bévárdi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nyíregyháza next, and one man in the Paksi dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 8. 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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Paksi was different afterwards.
Slobodan Sladojević 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Beaten 4 times, 5 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is János Hahn’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Paksi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paksi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Mićin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.78, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Position 12, 8 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“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.
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.
Petar Mićin 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 Slobodan Sladojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marton Gulacsi was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Paksi dressing room was either.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Kristóf Papp
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gergő Pálinkás’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Paksi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Földi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Supporters turn on the $750.0K sale of Olivér Tamás
He is going to Ujpest, the club has $750.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Kazincbarcika paid $180.0K and Paksi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Gyurkits 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.
Noel Keresztes 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Paksi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
0‑4 against Ferencvaros, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
443 appearances across 18 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gergő Pálinkás is living that version at Paksi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Dominik Földi is a Paksi player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Gyurkits 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. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Paksi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.