The bid was some way short and FC Košice did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
FC Košice close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything agreed with Slovan Bratislava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebrima Singhateh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Košice people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at FC Košice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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.
FC Košice asked and Malženice 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 FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every FC Košice game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Stará Ľubovňa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
FC Košice have made the call to Slovan Bratislava. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
FC Košice have made the call to Podbrezova. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Košice have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Dominik Kružliak has gone, the accounts have $1.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Košice can pretend not to have heard.
Šamorín paid $1.0M and FC Košice took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
FC Košice asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Vane Jovanov 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Osman Kakay 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.
12 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Inter Bratislava had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at FC Košice, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at FC Košice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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.
FC Košice asked and MFK Michalovce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Košice can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and FC Košice have had the benefit of it.
Add another name to the list: Inter Bratislava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Milan Rehuš. The answer from FC Košice has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at FC Košice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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.
Edin Julardžija 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.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at FC Košice has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at FC Košice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Kakay 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FC Košice, and 4 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Vane Jovanov will call it something else in private.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Košice told Filip Lichý something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marek Bero after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for FC Košice
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.
Sebastián Kóša 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ebrima Singhateh 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.
Level with 98 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon FC Košice had all but put away. MFK Ruzomberok will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Pijus Širvys'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.
8 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.
1‑2 against Besiktas. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebrima Singhateh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vane Jovanov 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marek Bero was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FC Košice dressing room was either.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Osman Kakay 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.” Marek Bero after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutMilan Rehuš dropped after a run of poor form
1‑1 against Radnicki Nis, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Matej Madleňák was at the centre of the description.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Košice 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.
7.96, 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.
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 FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 combined actions and 6.82. 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lorenzo Villa is living that version at FC Košice, and it tends to show in the first month.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marek Bero was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the FC Košice dressing room was either.
Edin Julardžija and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at FC Košice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Kakay is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spartak Trnava in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Position 4, 21 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at FC Košice would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
0‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebrima Singhateh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Filip Lichý.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutMatej Madleňák dropped after a run of poor form
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebrima Singhateh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Milan Rehuš is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. FC Košice will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Something was said to Ebrima Singhateh and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
0‑6. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with MFK Skalica the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that FC Košice will enjoy reviewing.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Milan Rehuš did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match22 Oct 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FC Košice and Liverpool in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Vane Jovanov 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 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.
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.
Vane Jovanov 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 no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. FC Košice will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against DAC Dunajska Streda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FC Košice has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑2 against Besiktas. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Edin Julardžija 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.43, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Edin Julardžija is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and FC Košice 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.
Marked 7.70 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, FC Košice had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Marek Bero, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marek Zsigmund has his answer from FC Košice; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
0‑2 against Radnicki Nis. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The offer from Tatran Prešov for Emilian Metu 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.
Matej Madleňák 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. MSK Zilina moved on, Ján Krivák reports back to FC Košice, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Vane Jovanov 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
Mátyás Kovács 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 needed Christián Herc to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against MFK Michalovce, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marek Bero after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Vane Jovanov
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
Looking aheadA test against the best for FC Košice
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at FC Košice until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Slovan Bratislava moved on, Dominik Kružliak reports back to FC Košice, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sabadell is saying, and nobody at FC Košice is enjoying the guessing.
FC Košice asked and Sparta Prague 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 FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hugo Fargues and FC Košice agree another 1 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at FC Košice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mátyás Kovács 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FC Košice people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jablonec have kept their man, and FC Košice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Milan Dimun 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Marek Bero to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and FC Košice are still learning each other
The phone has started ringing about Ján Krivák again, and this time the name on the line is MSK Zilina. FC Košice are listening politely and promising nothing.
Slávia TU Košice pay $190.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mátyás Kovács was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vane Jovanov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Some 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pijus Širvys has just signed for FC Košice, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sparta Prague is saying, and nobody at FC Košice is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Košice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑1 win over Spartak Trnava, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mátyás Kovács 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. MSK Zilina have kept their man, and FC Košice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vane Jovanov has, at FC Košice, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
FC Košice had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slavia Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.99 beside his name.
Sebastián Kóša 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.
FC Košice asked and MFK Ruzomberok said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ondrej Hubocan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edin Julardžija provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dominik Kružliak 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mátyás Kovács 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. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and FC Košice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The phone has started ringing about Erlantz Palacín again, and this time the name on the line is Malženice. FC Košice are listening politely and promising nothing.