“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 The request is on a desk at Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bekescsaba asked and Paksi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Diosgyor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuel Gamwo. The answer from Bekescsaba has not changed — yet.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bekescsaba has been clear about where Gergő Nagy stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Richárd Zsolnai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Áron Papp
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bekescsaba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 The request is on a desk at Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Ridwan Popoola again, and this time the name on the line is Ferencvaros. Bekescsaba are listening politely and promising nothing.
The deal with Kecskeméti TE 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.
“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; Bekescsaba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dejan Đurić 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 mood at Bekescsaba has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Stefan Đurić 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 Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Stefan Đurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
Dejan Đurić 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bekescsaba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad15 May 2028
Nathan Fondja 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Bekescsaba would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Viktor Orban has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Dejan Đurić 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bekescsaba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 May 2028
Roland Mikló loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Roland Mikló's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Stefan Đurić 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
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gergő Kocsis 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Nobody arrives at Bekescsaba until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Bekescsaba this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout1 May 2028
Roland Mikló loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Roland Mikló's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Bekescsaba would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Ridwan Popoola and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Nathan Fondja 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bekescsaba 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.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
115% of the income goes out in wages at Bekescsaba
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bekescsaba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Bekescsaba the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bekescsaba has been clear about where András Pusztai stands, which is more than many ever get.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Bekescsaba that is a harder question to answer.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Viktor Orban has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bekescsaba know it.
Stefan Đurić 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Nobody arrives at Bekescsaba until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Bekescsaba this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Gergő Kocsis loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Gergő Kocsis's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Stefan Đurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bekescsaba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba 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 Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Bence Daru’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Bekescsaba and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
In brief
BoardroomThe Bekescsaba production line keeps running
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 30 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bekescsaba can tell you which week it ends in.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Bekescsaba pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
SquadWords at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bekescsaba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
Ridwan Popoola 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Bekescsaba now.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Viktor Orban after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Gergő Bánfalvi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 Zoltán Varjas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Bence Daru scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Kozármisleny, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. UTA Arad have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nándor Kóródi, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Viktor Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bekescsaba told Áron Papp something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Bekescsaba 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.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSC Dumbrăvița have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bekescsaba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paksi have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Viktor Orban after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
0‑3 against Kecskeméti TE, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The offer from Ferencvaros for Ridwan Popoola 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Bence Daru will call it something else in private.
“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 Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ridwan Popoola 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.
6 goals in one match, Bence Daru on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Bekescsaba and Honved.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Áron Papp has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bekescsaba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Stefan Đurić 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 unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Richárd Nagy has his answer from Bekescsaba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Mezőkövesd the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Bekescsaba will enjoy reviewing.
Richárd Zsolnai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Viktor Orban chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Nathan Fondja 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.
Stefan Đurić 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 Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić 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 new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ridwan Popoola did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Dejan Đurić 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ridwan Popoola has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bekescsaba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ridwan Popoola 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Half the programme played, position 11, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bekescsaba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Richárd Zsolnai 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 Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Viktor Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bekescsaba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Stefan Đurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Richárd Zsolnai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Bekescsaba would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Dejan Đurić 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad8 Nov 2027
8 new faces, and Bekescsaba are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Viktor Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
The new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gábor Molnár is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bekescsaba know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Gábor Molnár's mistake
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Stefan Đurić 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić 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 new man at Bekescsaba has worked with Kristóf Sármány before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
A 2‑1 win over Szeged-Csanád GA, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.75 on the card, and the Bekescsaba support went home talking about one name.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Fondja 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ridwan Popoola and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Dejan Đurić 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
8 new faces, and Bekescsaba 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bekescsaba has been clear about where Rajmund Schrenck stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bence Daru’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bekescsaba needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gergő Nagy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Puskas Akademia left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bekescsaba can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bekescsaba are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Viktor Orban chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bekescsaba can tell you which week it ends in.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Viktor Haragos is living that version at Bekescsaba, and it tends to show in the first month.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bekescsaba asked and Vasas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Soroksár for Derick Ogbu 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bekescsaba can tell you which week it ends in.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Péter Horváth is a Bekescsaba player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Stefan Đurić 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kristóf Sármány has just signed for Bekescsaba, and for once the answer mattered.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Kristóf Sármány is a Bekescsaba player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Stefan Đurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba 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 Dejan Đurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Bekescsaba asked and Kazincbarcika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ádám Viczián
0‑3 to Mezőkövesd, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Dejan Đurić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Debrecen have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Viktor Orban after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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.
Dejan Đurić 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. FCSB have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Bálint Szabó 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Viktor Orban chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Bekescsaba had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Szeged-Csanád GA, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ridwan Popoola provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ujpest keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Tiszakécske made Bekescsaba work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dejan Đurić 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.
“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 Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
BVSC-Zugló paid $160.0K and Bekescsaba took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Add another name to the list: Mezőkövesd have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Roland Vólent. The answer from Bekescsaba has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bálint Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stefan Đurić 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. IMT have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Bálint Szabó falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Bekescsaba have gone to Honved 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.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Bekescsaba 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roland Mikló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
119% of the income goes out in wages at Bekescsaba
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bekescsaba are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bekescsaba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Everything agreed with Mezőkövesd, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Richárd Zsolnai 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 Jul 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roland Mikló 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.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Dejan Đurić is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Richárd Zsolnai 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Bálint Szabó 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Đurić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
Stefan Đurić 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bekescsaba have made the call to Vojvodina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Olympique Lyonnais have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Đurić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Miedź Legnica is saying, and nobody at Bekescsaba is enjoying the guessing.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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.
Bekescsaba asked and Noah 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Bekescsaba have made the call to Miedź Legnica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The offer from Szeged-Csanád GA for Richárd Nagy 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bekescsaba have done the hard part with Miedź Legnica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bálint Szabó 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.
Stefan Đurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Gergő Nagy 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ridwan Popoola signs something — a contract at Bekescsaba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Dávid Kelemen has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Gergő Nagy 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad17 May 2027
Bálint Szabó 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bekescsaba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bekescsaba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Stefan Đurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Bekescsaba now.
The dugout3 May 2027
Ádám Viczián loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ádám Viczián's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bekescsaba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ridwan Popoola signs something — a contract at Bekescsaba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Filip Borsos a promise
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Patrick Gânţe’s exile
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
“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 Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Bálint Szabó falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Bekescsaba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kristóf Sármány trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Stefan Đurić 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Boichuk signs something — a contract at Bekescsaba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patrik András Pelles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Richárd Zsolnai 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 Apr 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristóf Sármány 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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bohdan Boichuk is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
Richárd Zsolnai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Gergő Nagy 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Bekescsaba is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Richárd Zsolnai signs something — a contract at Bekescsaba 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 Bekescsaba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Gergő Nagy 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
142% of the income goes out in wages at Bekescsaba
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Richárd Zsolnai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Boichuk signs something — a contract at Bekescsaba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 8 on 41 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Roland Vólent takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Roland Vólent provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Áron Papp has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Roland Vólent in the middle of it, and BVSC-Zugló unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“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 Bekescsaba, 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 Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Gergő Nagy 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Gergő Nagy will call it something else in private.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ridwan Popoola has come out of that comparison in the side, and Bekescsaba have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ridwan Popoola decided nobody was going anywhere. Soroksár had no time left to answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dezső Mező did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Stefan Đurić 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.
“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; Bekescsaba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A last season at home is what Derick Ogbu is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
138% of the income goes out in wages at Bekescsaba
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 Bálint Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Derick Ogbu will call it something else in private.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Gergő Nagy 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Viktor Orban after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bekescsaba are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Mezőkövesd defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Richárd Zsolnai 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Gergő Nagy 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Gergő Nagy'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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bekescsaba is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Bekescsaba 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bálint Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Benedek Erdélyi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Richárd Nagy is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Gergő Nagy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Gergő Nagy will call it something else in private.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Viktor Orban to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Bekescsaba, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bekescsaba have done the hard part with Slask, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Primorje have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Viktor Orban kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
The deal with ETO Győr 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Bekescsaba is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Gergő Nagy's mistake
The dugoutStefan Đurić knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
Stefan Đurić 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Gergő Nagy 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Two goals and a mark of 8.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Simón Bodnar, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.50
A mark of 8.50 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.23 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Bekescsaba know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Simón Bodnar 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Bekescsaba and Kozármisleny, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Benedek Erdélyi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutTibor Lippai is still being punished for one mistake
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bekescsaba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ridwan Popoola, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Simón Bodnar 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ridwan Popoola has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Viktor Orban could afford to be generous.
16 combined actions and 7.80. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Samuel Gamwo has just signed for Bekescsaba, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Bekescsaba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CS Afumați runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Stefan Đurić 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Half the programme played, position 11, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Viktor Orban to a room that had heard them before.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bálint Szabó 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutStefan Đurić knocks on the manager’s door
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Bekescsaba and Fehervar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gergő Nagy, and the manager let it.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Bekescsaba dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑5 Viktor Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
Beaten 5 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Benedek Erdélyi
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tibor Lippai's mistake
Simón Bodnar 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gergő Nagy 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bence Daru trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A Bekescsaba teenager takes the young player award
Simón Bodnar is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bekescsaba 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simón Bodnar did not need any: 8.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ridwan Popoola. 2‑0 against Soroksár, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bekescsaba told Benedek Erdélyi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bálint Szabó 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Viktor Orban, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bekescsaba has been clear about where Bálint Szabó stands, which is more than many ever get.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Derick Ogbu. 2‑0 against Karcag, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Bekescsaba know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Simón Bodnar 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.63, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Something was said to Richárd Zsolnai and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tibor Lippai's mistake
Player ratingsSimón Bodnar beats them one at a time
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simón Bodnar did not need any: 8.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Simón Bodnar 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bekescsaba and Budafoki MTE in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roland Mikló 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 3‑4 Viktor Orban left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutÁdám Viczián is still being punished for one mistake
Stefan Đurić 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and Bekescsaba 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.
Budafoki MTE next, and one man in the Bekescsaba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Bekescsaba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bekescsaba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bekescsaba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simón Bodnar did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Stefan Đurić 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. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bekescsaba and Csákvár in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
210% of the income goes out in wages at Bekescsaba
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Kecskeméti TE will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Bekescsaba were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Simón Bodnar 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 Roland Mikló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Viktor Orban kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bekescsaba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simón Bodnar did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.79, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Simón Bodnar 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 Gergő Nagy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Benedek Erdélyi knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bekescsaba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Gergő Kovács reports back to Bekescsaba with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Simón Bodnar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barakaldo have kept their man, and Bekescsaba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and Bekescsaba 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ajka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bekescsaba is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Debrecen 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Partizan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bekescsaba asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roland Mikló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Bekescsaba know which stage they are at.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bekescsaba are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bekescsaba have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gergő Nagy 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.
Bekescsaba asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bekescsaba can pretend not to have heard.
Bekescsaba offered $520.0K; Ajka 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 Bekescsaba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bekescsaba asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Bekescsaba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roland Mikló 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Bekescsaba will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Bekescsaba have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. György Hursán was one of the reasons people came, and $660.0K does not replace that by itself.
Bekescsaba offered $520.0K; Vasas 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.
Stefan Đurić 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 Roland Mikló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stefan Đurić has, at Bekescsaba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at NK Osijek is saying, and nobody at Bekescsaba is enjoying the guessing.
The phone has started ringing about György Hursán again, and this time the name on the line is Ujpest. Bekescsaba are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Adam Szoboszlai has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roland Nikolic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Viktor Nagy has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bekescsaba 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 Roland Mikló was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Bekescsaba 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.