8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephen Eustáquio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ferencvaros may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 28 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Ferencvaros 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ander Guevara 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephen Eustáquio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer from MFK Michalovce for Marko Zebić 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.
Jokin Ezkieta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ander Guevara 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jokin Ezkieta 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ander Guevara 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ferencvaros can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and San Luis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
1 for Stephen Eustáquio, marked 7.94, 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dominik Sallai and Ferencvaros agree another 4 years.
Jokin Ezkieta 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Ander Guevara 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Slavia Prague had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Haladas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Ferencvaros, 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 Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Ander Guevara 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
55 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Naft Tehran for Riccardo Stivanello 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.
Jokin Ezkieta 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Gómez wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
55 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Ferencvaros asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ferencvaros have done the hard part with Ujpest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Patrizio Stronati has, at Ferencvaros, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Jokin Ezkieta 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 Jun 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
Ferencvaros and Ujpest have settled on $10.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Ferencvaros asked and Bournemouth 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sogdiana had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Ander Guevara 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 Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
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. Ferencvaros will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Jokin Ezkieta 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Ander Guevara 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ferencvaros. 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 Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
55 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Afimico Pululu 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Ander Guevara 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.
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. Ferencvaros will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.” Kristoffer Zachariassen and Ferencvaros agree another 2 years.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ferencvaros are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ferencvaros, another week without a signature from Jonathan Levi.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Habib Maïga has, at Ferencvaros, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ander Guevara 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 Afimico Pululu is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ferencvaros will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Charlie Crew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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 Ferencvaros 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 Ander Guevara 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 Mariano Gómez is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bas Kuipers trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Ferencvaros and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
55 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Afimico Pululu 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko 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 Ander Guevara is on it.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Ferencvaros would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ferencvaros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Stjarnan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Afimico Pululu 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ander Guevara 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
10 new faces, and Ferencvaros 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ferencvaros, another week without a signature from Gašper Trdin.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ferencvaros can pretend not to have heard.
Ander Guevara 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gašper Trdin has just signed for Ferencvaros, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ferencvaros are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The offer from New York Red Bulls for Aleksandar Ćirković 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bas Kuipers is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 Ferencvaros 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Ferencvaros than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and IFK Mariehamn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ander Guevara 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 Ander Guevara 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Jesus, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Feb 2029
9 new faces, and Ferencvaros 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ferencvaros are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Ferencvaros asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jokin Ezkieta 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Goni Naor is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ferencvaros are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sogdiana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ferencvaros ran out of time with Ujpest. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Peter Pokorný has just signed for Ferencvaros, and for once the answer mattered.
Jokin Ezkieta 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 Ander Guevara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Peter Pokorný has improved at 27, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
The shirt still fits. Daniel Arzani is back at Ferencvaros, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniel Arzani has just signed for Ferencvaros, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros 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.
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 Ander Guevara is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jokin Ezkieta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The chase for Dominik Sallai ended with $10.4M changing hands and Haladas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ferencvaros asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dominik Sallai has just signed for Ferencvaros, and for once the answer mattered.
Ferencvaros offered $1.1M; Puskas Akademia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ander Guevara 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.
$6.3M settles it between the clubs for Alberto Marí
Ujpest have accepted the money. What Ferencvaros do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Haladas 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Paksi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ujpest have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$830.0K 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stephen Eustáquio and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
Ander Guevara 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Jonathan Levi
The dugoutMariano Gómez has become a man the manager trusts
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 Ferencvaros have had the benefit of 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 Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ádám Nagy has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Something was said to Callum O'Dowda and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Ander Guevara is on it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 55 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Puskas Akademia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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 Mariano Gómez.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ander Guevara 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Blendi Idrizi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Ander Guevara 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mihajlo Banjac has, at Ferencvaros, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
49 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Janos Szoboszlai provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Janos Szoboszlai. 2‑1 against Fehervar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The phone has started ringing about Blendi Idrizi again, and this time the name on the line is San Marcos de Arica. Ferencvaros are listening politely and promising nothing.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tamas Botka did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stephen Eustáquio. 1‑0 against Vasas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
Three points for Ferencvaros, 3‑1 the final word against Paksi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Toma Bašić 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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Lenny Joseph 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.
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.
Debrecen will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ferencvaros were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Janos Szoboszlai provided it, and the 9.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ander Guevara 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ferencvaros and Debrecen in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lenny Joseph
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAnder Guevara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Haladas next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ferencvaros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ander Guevara 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 Igor Jesus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Ander Guevara 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ander Guevara will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Ferencvaros escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
27 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
1 for Ander Guevara, marked 7.98, 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ferencvaros agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Ander Guevara 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko 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 Ander Guevara is on it.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Attila Dibusz was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ferencvaros dressing room was either.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Luka Milivojević'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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Ander Guevara 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 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.
Vasas will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ferencvaros were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
A brace, and Lenny Joseph takes the afternoon — 9.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lenny Joseph provided it, and the 9.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Haladas moved on, Habib Maïga reports back to Ferencvaros, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
In brief
SquadWords at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Moussa N'Diaye at his very best
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Igor Jesus
Afimico Pululu had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Paksi were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Moussa N'Diaye is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Ferencvaros close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 11 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
After 10 games, Ferencvaros finally taste it again
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Paksi; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Moussa N'Diaye comes from Al Nasr for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
19 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
10 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ferencvaros have done the hard part with Al Nasr, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jokin Ezkieta is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
Racing Santander did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.0M for Jokin Ezkieta, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
In brief
Player ratingsAnder Guevara pops up at the right end — 7.98
Transfer targetsNo deal for Laros Duarte at that price
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer went to Puskas Akademia 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Gómez wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ander Guevara 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. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Afimico Pululu provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Haladas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferencvaros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Ferencvaros have gone to Racing Santander 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferencvaros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“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 Ferencvaros, 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 Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Habib Maïga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ander Guevara 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
SquadAnder Guevara has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Boardroom5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ferencvaros
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Barnabás Nagy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ander Guevara 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 16 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Milivojević is still being punished for one mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ferencvaros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ferencvaros asked and Ventforet Kofu 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not 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.
The name of Edgar Sevikyan has come up in conversations Ferencvaros were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luka Milivojević has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ferencvaros asked and Puskas Akademia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Puskas Akademia 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.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Barnabás Nagy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Oleksandr Zinchenko 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 Ander Guevara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal Khuzestan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gábor Szalai. The answer from Ferencvaros has not changed — yet.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ferencvaros are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
66 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Swansea City did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.7M for Stephen Eustáquio, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Ferencvaros offered $6.7M; Puskas Akademia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stephen Eustáquio has just signed for Ferencvaros, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dénes Dibusz 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
SquadWords at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
The dugoutAfimico Pululu has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from FC Copenhagen for Ander Guevara 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 offer went to Swansea City 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wolverhampton have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ferencvaros offered $2.2M; Puskas Akademia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Jesus wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Ferencvaros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$2.5M on the table at Puskas Akademia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Mariano Gómez 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Afimico Pululu has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Ander Guevara is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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. Ferencvaros will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ferencvaros heard it as anything else.
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
66 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Milivojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
In brief
The dugoutAfimico Pululu asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dénes Dibusz 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Igor Jesus and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Ferencvaros would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Endre Botka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros 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 Ferencvaros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roland Sallai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Barnabás Nagy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Ander Guevara 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Dénes Dibusz 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko 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 Jonathan Levi is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ferencvaros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Endre Botka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ander Guevara 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Jesus wants continental football; whether Ferencvaros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros 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 Ferencvaros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Afimico Pululu’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadMariano Gómez is the talk of the training ground
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Barnabás Nagy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Ferencvaros than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ferencvaros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Dénes Dibusz 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros 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 Luka Milivojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
With 5 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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 Afimico Pululu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Ferencvaros would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Ferencvaros have no good answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ferencvaros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.” Callum O'Dowda and Ferencvaros agree another 4 years.
Something was said to Afimico Pululu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Milivojević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ander Guevara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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 Afimico Pululu is on it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ferencvaros hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Dénes Dibusz 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not 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.
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 Mariano Gómez is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Callum O'Dowda signs something — a contract at Ferencvaros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ferencvaros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The offer from Malmo FF for Ander Guevara 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferencvaros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Endre Botka has agreed terms with MTK Budapest for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ferencvaros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Roma keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ferencvaros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Ferencvaros close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 5 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Barnabás Nagy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ferencvaros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ander Guevara 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 Luka Milivojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Ferencvaros have paid $12.6M for Igor Jesus, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Ferencvaros asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Igor Jesus is living that version at Ferencvaros, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Ferencvaros, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Flora for Georgy Arutyunyan 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 chase for Georgy Arutyunyan ended with $1.6M changing hands and Puskas Akademia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Ujpest 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Libertad is saying, and nobody at Ferencvaros is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$12.6M on the table at Los Angeles Football Club. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Ferencvaros had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Torino, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferencvaros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ferencvaros offered $1.8M; Haladas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Ander Guevara 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Milivojević 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.
$20.0M was the most the club would pay and Vissel Kobe 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ferencvaros have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Ferencvaros have gone to Torino 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.
Ferencvaros 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Attila Osváth has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Ander Guevara 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 66 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferencvaros can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ander Guevara 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.
A 2‑1 win over Puskas Akademia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Milivojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Veljko Birmančević provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros 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 Oleksandr Zinchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ander Guevara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Luka Milivojević's mistake
14 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Ander Guevara 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Janos Szoboszlai and Ferencvaros agree another 4 years.
400 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.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Janos Szoboszlai provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A season average of 7.62 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Tamas Botka, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
30 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
1 for Ádám Nagy, marked 7.60, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferencvaros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
22 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 9.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ander Guevara 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.
6 goals in one match, Veljko Birmančević on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ferencvaros and Haladas.
Three points for Ferencvaros, 4‑2 the final word against Haladas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Ferencvaros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zinchenko 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.
In brief
Player ratingsJanos Szoboszlai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
27 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ander Guevara 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Janos Szoboszlai. 1‑0 against MTK Budapest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Haladas next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
8.08. 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.
Nobody at Ferencvaros 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.