“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 The request is on a desk at Nyíregyháza, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nyíregyháza have done the hard part with Lommel, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nyíregyháza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Eneo Bitri 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nyíregyháza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benedek Erdélyi and Nyíregyháza agree another 4 years.
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The offer went to Debrecen this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Eneo Bitri 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.
MTK Budapest paid $300.0K and Nyíregyháza took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Péter Beke again, and this time the name on the line is Kapfenberg. Nyíregyháza are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Dániel Csóka 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.
Nyíregyháza asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Nyíregyháza will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nyíregyháza can pretend not to have heard.
Nyíregyháza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Akhmat Grozny, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Puskas Akademia pay $230.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eneo Bitri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill 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.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nyíregyháza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Nyíregyháza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Eneo Bitri 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.
MTK Budapest pay $210.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and Nyíregyháza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Akhmat Grozny 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Debrecen; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Nyíregyháza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Milán Kovács again, and this time the name on the line is Ajka. Nyíregyháza are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Péter Beke is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nyíregyháza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Robert Tarcsi 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.
21 appearances and 5 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.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and Nyíregyháza 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.
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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Žan Medved signs something — a contract at Nyíregyháza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akram Bouras was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nyíregyháza. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nyíregyháza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Nyíregyháza the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Jacopo Sassi
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nyíregyháza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Nyíregyháza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
9 shut-outs in 24 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Roland Kersák has been having a lot of them.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Žan Medved signs something — a contract at Nyíregyháza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Levente Katona trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nyíregyháza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nyíregyháza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Nyíregyháza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Sanković 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nyíregyháza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutBálint Katona knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nyíregyháza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill and Nyíregyháza agree another 3 years.
24 appearances at Mezőkövesd and the goals have stopped going in. Nyíregyháza lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
4 goals in 15 games at Gornik Leczna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nyíregyháza updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nyíregyháza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nyíregyháza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Akram Bouras 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Nyíregyháza would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nyíregyháza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Andrii Kozhukhar 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Eneo Bitri 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nyíregyháza has been clear about where Bright Edomwonyi stands, which is more than many ever get.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Chernihiv moved on, Oleksandr Vivdych reports back to Poltava, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Poltava may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Poltava close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Poltava had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nyíregyháza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eneo Bitri 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 Akram Bouras was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nyíregyháza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bálint Katona trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 goals in 20 games at Tatran Liptovský Mikuláš — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nyíregyháza updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nyíregyháza 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 Levente Katona was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Kevin Csoboth arrives from Young Boys with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nyíregyháza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nyíregyháza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Poltava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Poltava pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Poltava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Rukh were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dmytro Plakhtyr scored, was marked 7.68, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Valerii Voskonyan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Plakhtyr 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Poltava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Valerii Voskonyan 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 Dmytro Plakhtyr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Something was said to Péter Beke and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout23 Nov 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 Bohdan Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Poltava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 16 and 8 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.
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava 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 Dmytro Plakhtyr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 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 Bohdan Popov to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutAndrii Savenkov has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmytro Plakhtyr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Poltava has been clear about where Vadym Pidlepych stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Poltava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Kryvbas next, and one man in the Poltava dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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 Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Mykola Buzhyn 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.
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 dugout5 Oct 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 0‑2 Bohdan Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dmytro Prikhna is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Valerii Voskonyan 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Plakhtyr 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 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 1‑3 Bohdan Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Poltava are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Karpaty in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutDmytro Prikhna asks for a word with the manager
Argyris Darelas 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 Dmytro Plakhtyr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
LNZ left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 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 Bohdan Popov to a room that had heard them before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Poltava 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.
Zorya next, and one man in the Poltava dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The offer from Epicentr for Péter Beke 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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Nyíregyháza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill 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.
Predrag Đorđević 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Krisztián Keresztes, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 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.” Dominik Szalai, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Nyíregyháza man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Bálint Katona was the best thing in any of them.
“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 Nyíregyháza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Nyíregyháza asked and Trabzonspor 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 Nyíregyháza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Marko Kvasina has come up in conversations Nyíregyháza were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akram Bouras was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $30.0K — a club that wants Muhammed Jobe enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Karpaty wanted more than $25.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Plakhtyr 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Poltava are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Bojan Sanković will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Nyíregyháza escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $810.0K has been paid because Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sparta Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nyíregyháza can pretend not to have heard.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.90 for the rest of it.
The offer from Radomiak Radom for Slobodan Babić 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.
Nyíregyháza have gone to Puskas Akademia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nyíregyháza have done the hard part with Sparta Prague, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nyíregyháza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Santos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Péter Beke had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Dukla Prague for Dorian Babunski 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.
Nikola Vukajlović 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 Milán Májer again, and this time the name on the line is BVSC-Zugló. Nyíregyháza are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dominik Orban 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
SquadWords at Nyíregyháza training over how hard people work
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Nyíregyháza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dominik Nagy 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 dugout3 Aug 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 Dominik Szalai to a room that had heard them before.
A loan enquiry to Rayo Vallecano: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A loan enquiry to ETO Győr: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eneo Bitri 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
The dugoutŽan Medved asks for a word with the manager