Mihály Kata 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kristóf Lépő is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Benedek Varju 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.
Nobody at MTK Budapest 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MTK Budapest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at MTK Budapest has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Liedniev signs something — a contract at MTK Budapest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and MTK Budapest know it.
Mihály Kata 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 János Szépe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Joel Fameyeh is on it.
7 goals in 20 games at Kazincbarcika — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at MTK Budapest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stipe Radić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at MTK Budapest would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Liedniev signs something — a contract at MTK Budapest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bekescsaba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at MTK Budapest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MTK Budapest can pretend not to have heard.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” MTK Budapest may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at MTK Budapest until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MTK Budapest 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 Mihály Kata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Ilia Beriashvili and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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. Fabio Abiuso has moved up it.
MTK Budapest asked and Budafoki MTE 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and János Szépe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bekescsaba will make the call about Kristóf Hinora this week. MTK Budapest have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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 dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting György Komáromi's mistake
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and MTK Budapest will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutIstván Bognár knocks on the manager’s door
Joel Fameyeh 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Mihály Kata 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.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marin Jurina.
Nobody at MTK Budapest will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The offer from Plymouth Argyle for Fabio Abiuso 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Carrarese have had the benefit of it.
Matthias Braunöder 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. LASK have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MTK Budapest can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. MTK Budapest will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Add another name to the list: Vasas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zalán Kerezsi. The answer from MTK Budapest has not changed — yet.
The deal with Carrarese is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MTK Budapest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Carrarese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sampdoria were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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 20 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.04, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tommaso Rubino did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matthias Braunöder and Carrarese agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolò Mancini was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Carrarese dressing room was either.
1 for Julián Illanes, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Matthias Braunöder 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 Nicolás Schiavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julián Illanes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jonas Rouhi 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.
Nicola Ravaglia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Carrarese 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 dugout5 Oct 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.” Nicolò Mancini, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Nicolò Mancini could afford to be generous.
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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Carrarese, another week without a signature from Fabio Abiuso.