Daniel Štefulj 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. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and ETO Győr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Milán Vitális. 1‑0 against MTK Budapest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Željko Gavrić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. ETO Győr will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
ETO Győr asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Kevin Bánáti has come up in conversations ETO Győr were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ETO Győr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Claudiu Bumba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bence Kleinheisler on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ZTE in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A 1‑0 win over Paksi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Milán Vitális was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Claudiu Bumba 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.
Dominik Farkas 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bence Kleinheisler on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ETO Győr can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑1 to Puskas Akademia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Gabi Caschili 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Bence Kleinheisler to a room that had heard them before.
Dominik Farkas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paksi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ETO Győr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ETO Győr can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Daniel Štefulj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at ETO Győr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Claudiu Bumba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Senna Miangué 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bence Kleinheisler after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Željko Gavrić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ETO Győr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Something was said to Balázs Kesző Farkas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Daniel Štefulj 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.
Ujpest next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabi Caschili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Vladyslav Kochergin 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
Words at ETO Győr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Željko Gavrić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Diosgyor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 ETO Győr would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Željko Gavrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Kisvárda; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ETO Győr, another week without a signature from Vladyslav Kochergin.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabi Caschili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every ETO Győr game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Tiszakécske runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Daniel Štefulj is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Position 3, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Claudiu Bumba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Željko Gavrić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Half the programme played, position 3, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Dominik Farkas 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bence Kleinheisler could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of László Vingler
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ETO Győr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. ETO Győr will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Daniel Štefulj 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 Željko Gavrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dominik Farkas is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. ETO Győr will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ETO Győr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Rajmund Tóth has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Claudiu Bumba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Milán Vitális was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ETO Győr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 15 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Vladyslav Kochergin 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 Željko Gavrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bence Kleinheisler could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutŞtefan Vlădoiu is still being punished for one mistake
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ETO Győr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Daniel Štefulj and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Bence Kleinheisler chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Paksi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the ETO Győr squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ETO Győr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nyíregyháza have kept their man, and ETO Győr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Puskas Akademia made ETO Győr work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at ETO Győr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Željko Gavrić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ETO Győr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 ETO Győr, and it is not being withdrawn.
The bid was some way short and ETO Győr did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
ETO Győr close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Željko Gavrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Senna Miangué is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Senna Miangué is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vladyslav Kochergin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ETO Győr have done the hard part with Austria Wien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Daniel Štefulj 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. BVSC-Zugló have kept their man, and ETO Győr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout31 Aug 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.” Bence Kleinheisler, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Ujpest will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“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 ETO Győr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Daniel Štefulj 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 Željko Gavrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Puskas Akademia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Daniel Štefulj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Željko Gavrić 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 phone has started ringing about Márton Szép again, and this time the name on the line is Tiszakécske. ETO Győr are listening politely and promising nothing.
A loan enquiry to MFK Ruzomberok: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ETO Győr have done the hard part with Puskas Akademia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Vladyslav Kochergin 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. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and ETO Győr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Akos Nagy is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Akos Szalai has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Kleinheisler is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer from USM Alger for Ahmed Nadhir Benbouali 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vladyslav Kochergin has, at ETO Győr, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ETO Győr 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 Željko Gavrić 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. Shakhtar have kept their man, and ETO Győr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Szentlőrinc have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alex Lacza. The answer from ETO Győr has not changed — yet.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ETO Győr, another week without a signature from Vladyslav Kochergin.