Marked for Bence Batik
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fehervar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Aug 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Fehervar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Patrik Kovács is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match19 Aug 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Mariano Gómez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fehervar.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Héctor Campos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market21 Aug 2028
Diosgyor are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Fehervar will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Aug 2028
Daniel Arzani: 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.” Fehervar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Aug 2028
Fehervar say no — this time
The offer from MTK Budapest for Patrik Kovács 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.
Market14 Aug 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 Fehervar heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aël Belangote is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match12 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Aug 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muhamadou Kanteh is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Jun 2028
Kirill Zaika 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 Fehervar can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Body
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Body will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fehervar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Krisztián Kovács 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
No hiding place for Rok Bržan
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rok Bržan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Krisztián Kovács 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
7 new faces, and Fehervar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Krisztián Kovács 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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Squad
7 new faces, and Fehervar are still learning each other
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Squad
No hiding place for Bence Batik
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Market
The shop window has Bence Batik in it
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Boardroom
The Fehervar production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Fehervar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krisztián Kovács 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Gergő Kocsis gets it from the manager
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Bence Batik may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Csaba Spandler knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Csaba Spandler trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Aug 2027
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ruben Silva-Richards decided nobody was going anywhere. Paksi had no time left to answer.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Mario Simuţ: 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.” Fehervar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fehervar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Fehervar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matej Malenšek 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Match21 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ruben Silva-Richards’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fehervar.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 7.87 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Fehervar had the best player on the pitch.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“I watch every Fehervar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ferencvaros runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.