Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ujpest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Honved is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
$74.0K on the table at Nyíregyháza. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilveszter Hangya 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. Altach have kept their man, and Honved 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: Kevin Kállai. 1‑0 against Soroksár, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
He is going to Puskas Akademia, the club has $530.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Honved have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Up for the corner, and Kevin Kállai delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kevin Kállai scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Puskas Akademia pay $530.0K, 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.
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Medić 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.
Honved asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
1 for Dániel Tiefenbach, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Szilveszter Hangya 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. ETO Győr have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody at Honved saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Puskas Akademia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Debrecen for István Márk Pekár 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.
Uroš Ignjatović 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 Szilveszter Hangya 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. Dinamo Bucharest have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A brace, and Predrag Medić takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Predrag Medić provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 goals in one match, Predrag Medić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Honved and Szeged-Csanád GA.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Szilveszter Hangya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Bogdán Bánhegyi again, and this time the name on the line is Kozármisleny. Honved are listening politely and promising nothing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Szilveszter Hangya signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Honved that is a harder question to answer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Uroš Ignjatović 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Predrag Medić 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.
Honved asked and Chrudim said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from Kecskeméti TE for Predrag Medić 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 Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Norbert Szélpál 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 Jul 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Medić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Honved offered $36.0K; Karcag 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.
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.
Honved asked and SC Aubagne Air Bel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“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 Honved, 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Szilveszter Hangya 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. FC Argeș have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
13 new faces, and Honved are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Szilveszter Hangya signs something — a contract at Honved 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 Ákos Baki has written the date down.
He is going to Ferencvaros, the club has $1.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Honved asked and Chrudim 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 Honved 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 Bogdán Bánhegyi. The answer from Honved has not changed — yet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ferencvaros waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Honved is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Norbert Szélpál and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Diosgyor paid $61.0K and Honved took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Honved has been clear about where Ákos Baki stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Swindon Town 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Honved lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Uroš Ignjatović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilveszter Hangya 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 did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Predrag Đorđević has his answer from Honved; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jakob Schöny 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Honved, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Honved now.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Medić 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
18 new faces, and Honved 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 loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Honved no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ádám Somogyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Honved lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilveszter Hangya 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.
Everybody at Honved saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and András Radó trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Honved lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
“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 Honved, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Ákos Baki has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and András Radó trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Mamadou Meité and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Medić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 Honved know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Honved will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Medić 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Honved are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Honved would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Uroš Ignjatović’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know 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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Norbert Szélpál 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivan Serediuk is living that version at Honved, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Ignjatović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
Christian Petito is 20, and Honved have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pietro Colasanto has just signed for Honved, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilveszter Hangya 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.
Pietro Colasanto is 20, and Honved have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Ismaël Touré is 18, and Honved have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Attila Lőrinczy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Honved will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szilveszter Hangya 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 Honved has been clear about where Bogdán Bánhegyi stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Kevin Kállai 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. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and András Radó trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Honved has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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 Kevin Kántor has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Honved the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Mamadou Meité 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 Szilveszter Hangya 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.
“I watch every Honved game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ferencvaros runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Something was said to Mamadou Meité and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Honved would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Position 6 on 41 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Position 6 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.
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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mamadou Meité is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luca Schmitzberger is living that version at Honved, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Honved now.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
Ádám Somogyi is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Honved where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Paksi until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
BVSC-Zugló held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Honved answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“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.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Mamadou Meité, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.90 for the rest of it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everybody at Honved saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
At 18 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 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.
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.
Uroš Ignjatović 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 Szilveszter Hangya 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dominik Nagy was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Honved dressing room was either.
Something was said to Attila Lőrinczy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Richárd Nagy has just signed for Honved, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MTK Budapest have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Honved are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dominik Nagy was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Honved dressing room was either.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Honved close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 3 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.
Marked 7.31 on 18 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ákos Baki 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.
8.09. 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Csákvár leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Alex Szabó'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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dominik Nagy after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Uroš Ignjatović 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: 19. 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 Alex Szabó 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Honved pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
A brace, and Ákos Zuigeber takes the afternoon — 8.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ákos Zuigeber provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Honved and Bekescsaba in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It finished 4‑2, and it was Ákos Zuigeber’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Honved.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Predrag Medić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karcag waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Honved is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić 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. Anagennisi Karditsa have kept their man, and Honved 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Karcag spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The offer from Ferencvaros for Kevin Kállai 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Predrag Đorđević again, and this time the name on the line is Ferencvaros. Honved are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dominik Nagy after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kevin Varga signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
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.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dániel Tiefenbach. 3‑1 against Kozármisleny, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Medić 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. Honved will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Dominik Nagy, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Ákos Baki 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.
“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 dugout13 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.” Dominik Nagy chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Szeged-Csanád GA defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Kozármisleny next, and one man in the Honved dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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 Predrag Medić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Paksi continues; the message travels home.
Predrag Đorđević 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 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Predrag Đorđević is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Honved $40.0K. Bence Varga left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Predrag Medić in the middle of it, and Kecskeméti TE unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. BVSC-Zugló kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Honved will be asked about the last half hour all week.
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.
Ákos Baki 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Osman Hadžikić'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.
“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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Uroš Ignjatović 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 Predrag Medić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Honved needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Honved would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A side in position 4 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
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 Honved 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Predrag Medić 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Predrag Medić'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.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Žarko Bogdanović is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Predrag Medić 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.
Ákos Baki 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.
“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 Honved know it.
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.
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.” Dominik Nagy after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. András Radó has just signed for Honved, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Predrag Medić 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dominik Nagy after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ákos Zuigeber’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Honved 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 Ákos Baki 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 Osman Hadžikić signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
Three points for Honved, 2‑1 the final word against Csákvár in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dominik Nagy on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
7.94, 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.
Uroš Ignjatović 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 Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout27 Sep 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.” Dominik Nagy kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Norbert Szélpál was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas has his answer from Honved; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bekescsaba? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
In brief
The dugoutKevin Varga unhappy with how he is being used
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Honved asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Alex 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.
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.
“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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Honved 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Soroksár go through and Honved go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Karcag were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
Honved asked and Andorra 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 Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
Honved asked and Cartagena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Alex 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Giacomo Bernabè has just signed for Honved, and for once the answer mattered.
Honved asked and Ferencvaros 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Alex 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: 17. 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.
“I watch every Honved game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ETO Győr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Chiki is in the works
7.20, 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.
“I watch every Honved game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Budafoki MTE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Gellért Dúzs was one of the reasons people came, and $300.0K does not replace that by itself.
Norbert Szélpál 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MTK Budapest have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Honved offered $34.0K; Karcag 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Viktor Gulacsi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Akos Lisztes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Zoltan Botka 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Zoltan Sallai 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Honved, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The offer from ETO Győr for Ákos Zuigeber 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bekescsaba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Honved is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Honved have gone to Karcag 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zoltán Medgyes is on it.
The offer went to MTK Budapest this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Honved asked and Kisvárda 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 Gellért Dúzs has come up in conversations Honved were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Norbert Balogh signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Predrag Đorđević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Honved had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nyíregyháza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Uroš Ignjatović 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. Karcag have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
7 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ákos Baki trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Honved asked and MTK Budapest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Uroš Ignjatović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 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 Dániel Tiefenbach has written the date down.
The offer from Debrecen for Ákos Zuigeber 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.
Honved had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at MTK Budapest, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Honved have gone to Karcag 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
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 offer went to MTK Budapest this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Debrecen have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Alex 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Norbert Balogh signs something — a contract at Honved 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 Honved. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Honved asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Norbert Szélpál 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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 loan was meant to give him football. 2 games and 0 goals later he is back at Honved no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
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 Zoltán Medgyes has written the date down.
Juankar 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 May 2027
Alex 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 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.
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.
“I watch every Honved game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Puskas Akademia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Honved, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Norbert Balogh signs something — a contract at Honved 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 Dániel Tiefenbach has written the date down.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Position 10 on 40 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
Uroš Ignjatović 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 Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ákos Baki trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved 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.
Norbert Szélpál 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 May 2027
Alex 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Honved will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A 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 Dániel Tiefenbach has written the date down.
Juankar 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Honved, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Norbert Szélpál 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 Apr 2027
Alex 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 Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Honved. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Honved have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Honved, another week without a signature from Juankar.
71 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Honved 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Alex 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.
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.
1‑4 against Kecskeméti TE, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Norbert Szélpál 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Honved pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Žarko Bogdanović, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Norbert Szélpál 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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Žarko Bogdanović 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.
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Alex 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Juankar 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 Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Honved, and 14 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 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.
Ajka will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Honved were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A brace, and Ákos Zuigeber takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ákos Zuigeber provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Zoltán Medgyes has his answer from Honved; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“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 Honved, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dominik Nagy after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Alex Szabó is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
7.89, 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.
Uroš Ignjatović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Three points for Honved, 2‑1 the final word against Kozármisleny in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Alex 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dániel Tiefenbach will call it something else in private.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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.” Dominik Nagy, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Honved 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.85, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
“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 Honved, 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 Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Tiszakécske leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout25 Jan 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.” Dominik Nagy chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Honved are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zoltán Medgyes is on it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Patrik Pinte was one of the reasons people came, and $410.0K does not replace that by 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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
Norbert Szélpál was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Honved can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Szeged-Csanád GA is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
The chase for Bogdán Bánhegyi ended with $210.0K changing hands and Diosgyor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Bogdán Bánhegyi from Diosgyor for $210.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Ignjatović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Norbert Balogh. 2‑0 against Fehervar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Honved, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The phone has started ringing about István Márk Pekár again, and this time the name on the line is Puskas Akademia. Honved are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Ignjatović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Branko Pauljević has his answer from Honved; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
7 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 Honved can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Ignjatović 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 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Uroš Ignjatović 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.
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.
Budafoki MTE left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Tiefenbach 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Csontos 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 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Budafoki MTE in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Honved will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Honved 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 Uroš Ignjatović 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.
Position 5, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“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.
Nobody at Honved will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dániel Tiefenbach was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
Looking aheadHonved take on the side everybody is chasing
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Norbert Szélpál and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Predrag Đorđević'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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Honved needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Honved know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Honved. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Honved will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Juankar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Honved, and 7 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout9 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Dominik Nagy to a room that had heard them before.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ádám Gyurcsó. 1‑0 against Ajka, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Honved will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Tiefenbach 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 Honved, and 6 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Osman Hadžikić has come out of that comparison in the side, and Honved have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
7.42, 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.
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.
Uroš Ignjatović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Kállai, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex 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.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 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.” Honved have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 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 helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Kozármisleny tried to reorganise, Honved did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Gellért Dúzs 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.” Dominik Nagy on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ákos Sigér
The dugoutPredrag Đorđević is still being punished for one mistake
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Honved is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dániel Tiefenbach 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 is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Honved will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Honved told Zoltán Medgyes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Honved has been clear about where Tamás Csilus stands, which is more than many ever get.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kozármisleny in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ákos Zuigeber 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.