There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Puskas Akademia scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 The request is on a desk at Puskas Akademia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Darío Osorio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Dániel Lukács 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Bratislava have kept their man, and Puskas Akademia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.
Callum O'Dowda 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.
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.
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Everything agreed with FC Midtjylland, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Đorđe Jovanović 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marton Sallai 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Istvan Sallai 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.
Laros Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Dániel Lukács 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.
Puskas Akademia asked and Zaglebie said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 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.
“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 Puskas Akademia, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Quentin Maceiras is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Puskas Akademia that is a harder question to answer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutRoland Orján knocks on the manager's door
Sorrento have accepted the money. What Puskas Akademia 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 Puskas Akademia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Dániel Lukács 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.
22 appearances and 10 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Puskas Akademia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Mondovics and Puskas Akademia agree another 4 years.
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Puskas Akademia have done the hard part with Radnik Surdulica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mikael Soisalo has gone, the accounts have $970.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ujpest have kept their man, and Puskas Akademia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$690.0K was the most the club would pay and Diosgyor 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.
Fehervar paid $970.0K and Puskas Akademia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Callum O'Dowda commits to Puskas Akademia for another 2 years.
Squad21 Jun 2027
András Németh has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Callum O'Dowda 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Rajmund Horváth is in the works
$690.0K on the table at Diosgyor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.9M — a club that wants Zsolt Varga enough to be asked twice.
Laros Duarte 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 easiest signature of my career.” Callum O'Dowda and Puskas Akademia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Callum O'Dowda from Ferencvaros for $2.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
Market31 May 2027
Michael Okeke returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Puskas Akademia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Puskas Akademia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Zsolt Nagy 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 Dániel Lukács 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.
The goal that put Ferencvaros ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Puskas Akademia equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Artem Favorov will call it something else in private.
“The easiest signature of my career.” András Németh and Puskas Akademia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Lukács 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 watch every Puskas Akademia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Paksi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 22 games at Diosgyor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Puskas Akademia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
Mikael Soisalo has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tamás Fadgyas 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.
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 Wojciech Golla is on it.
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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. András Németh has moved up it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Puskas Akademia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Laros Duarte 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 had been thinking. Dániel Lukács 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.
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 Palkó Dárdai is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Aleksandar Popović’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Favorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Puskas Akademia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Paksi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 goals in 22 games at Diosgyor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Puskas Akademia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until András Németh signs something — a contract at Puskas Akademia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Artem Favorov 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.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikael Soisalo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Lukács 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.” Martin Kern and Puskas Akademia agree another 5 years.
“I watch every Puskas Akademia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Haladas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
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 Tamás Fadgyas has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“I watch every Puskas Akademia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Diosgyor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Puskas Akademia lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Puskas Akademia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tamás Fadgyas 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 Puskas Akademia 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Favorov 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 Puskas Akademia, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
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 Tamás Fadgyas has written the date down.
Martin Kern has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Urho Nissilä has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” András Németh and Puskas Akademia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Palkó Dárdai is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Puskas Akademia would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Laros Duarte is still in the building
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olimpia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Lukács 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. Modena have kept their man, and Puskas Akademia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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 Mikael Soisalo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Puskas Akademia would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Puskas Akademia asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Lukács 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. Diosgyor have kept their man, and Puskas Akademia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Tamás Fadgyas 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Puskas Akademia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
10 goals in 22 games at Diosgyor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Puskas Akademia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Puskas Akademia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Puskas Akademia have done the hard part with Ujpest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Dániel Lukács 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MFK Skalica have kept their man, and Puskas Akademia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Diosgyor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michael Okeke. The answer from Puskas Akademia has not changed — yet.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Artem Favorov 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.
A loan enquiry to DAC Dunajska Streda: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nobody at Puskas Akademia 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Puskas Akademia can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Roland Orján has agreed terms with Paksi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Dániel Lukács 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.
Laros Duarte 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ujpest have kept their man, and Puskas Akademia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Roland Orján has come up in conversations Puskas Akademia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Puskas Akademia have made the call to Ujpest. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Dániel Lukács 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.
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 Aleksandar Popović is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Janos Kleinheisler after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tamás Fadgyas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Janos Kleinheisler to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Martin Kern is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Tamás Fadgyas
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and András Németh obliged against Honved. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Puskas Akademia.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Palkó Dárdai’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Puskas Akademia.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Dániel Lukács was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Favorov 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.” Janos Kleinheisler kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.33, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Puskas Akademia had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Janos Kleinheisler chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
8 goals in 17 games at Diosgyor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Puskas Akademia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Dániel Lukács 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.
At 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Favorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.” Janos Kleinheisler kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Puskas Akademia told Urho Nissilä something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Lukács 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 the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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.
Roland Orján 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. Martin Kern is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia 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 Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zalán Kerezsi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Favorov 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.
Tamás Fadgyas 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.
7 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Janos Kleinheisler on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Lukács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Position 5, 17 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Janos Kleinheisler after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Miroslav Marković and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Puskas Akademia and Honved in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miroslav Marković and Puskas Akademia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
András Németh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Artem Favorov 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Janos Kleinheisler after 3‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Artem Favorov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Dániel Lukács 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: Dániel Lukács. 1‑0 against Fehervar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Artem Favorov 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the Puskas Akademia support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Janos Kleinheisler, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puskas Akademia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 new faces, and Puskas Akademia 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Janos Kleinheisler, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fehervar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Puskas Akademia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Favorov 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Janos Kleinheisler on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Puskas Akademia has been clear about where Roland Orján stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Puskas Akademia can pretend not to have heard.
The shirt still fits. Zalán Kerezsi is back at Puskas Akademia, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Zalán Kerezsi was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Puskas Akademia asked and Neftchi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tamás Fadgyas 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 dugout31 Aug 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 1‑2 Janos Kleinheisler left the room before anybody could ask which.
Puskas Akademia have made the call to Leyton Orient. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Nantes is saying, and nobody at Puskas Akademia is enjoying the guessing.
The fee is $120.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. MTK Budapest drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Puskas Akademia asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Favorov 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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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.” Janos Kleinheisler chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against MTK Budapest in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The clubs have shaken hands with MTK Budapest; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zsolt Nagy and Puskas Akademia agree another 2 years.
Dániel Lukács 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.
Puskas Akademia asked and NK Celje 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabor Szoboszlai 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andras Fiola is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mate Fiola is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.