The words a physio says slowly. 57 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Club Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Fehervar for Gellért Dúzs was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Everything agreed with HNK Gorica, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Joel Fameyeh 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 Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edin Ajdinović and Honved agree another 4 years.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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.
80 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Honved have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
$820.0K on the table at Bekescsaba. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Honved can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
“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.
Joel Fameyeh 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Maroje Kostopeč has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Honved would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
96 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.
Position 5 on 35 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.
Joel Fameyeh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Igor Jeličić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Laszlo Fiola and Honved agree another 3 years.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 Krisztian Botka to a room that had heard them before.
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.
106 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Jeličić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Honved the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Honved and Puskas Akademia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
0‑5 to Ferencvaros, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Jeličić 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.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Beaten 5 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Joel Fameyeh 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 Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Krisztian Botka could afford to be generous.
Two goals and a mark of 9.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Honved they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7 goals in one match, Norbert Balogh on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Honved and Vasas.
In brief
SquadWords at Honved training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Jeličić 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Krisztian Botka on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Joel Fameyeh 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 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.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Honved told Edin Ajdinović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Debrecen defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Joel Fameyeh decided otherwise. Haladas had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
Haladas made Honved work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Igor Jeličić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Norbert Balogh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.12. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Honved is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Joel Fameyeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Igor Jeličić 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Ákos Zuigeber was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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 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.
“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.
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.
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.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
Position 6, 16 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Jeličić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Honved they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maroje Kostopeč, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Igor Jeličić 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.
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.
Joel Fameyeh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Jeličić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Honved can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Honved is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑2 against Haladas, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A brace, and Joel Fameyeh takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Fameyeh provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Honved have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 12 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Padova is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Honved is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Basel is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Laszlo Fiola is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Joel Fameyeh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.58. 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.
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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A brace, and Joel Fameyeh takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Fameyeh provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Miron Mucsányi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Wigan Athletic: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kevin Varga
17 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.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Haladas were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maroje Kostopeč is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Honved will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Honved they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Basel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Honved and Ujpest in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Honved will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal with Basel is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at HNK Rijeka is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Osman Hadžikić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Đorđe Glišović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Honved the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Osman Hadžikić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Igor Jeličić 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 Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Honved is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Honved will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Igor Jeličić 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.
68 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Jeličić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Honved the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mainz 05 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 Denys Pidruchnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Genk is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
Osman Hadžikić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Igor Jeličić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nizhniy Novgorod have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
9 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 words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Honved people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at HNK Rijeka is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
Osman Hadžikić 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Richard Nagy commits to Honved for another 4 years.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Igor Jeličić 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.
96 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have shaken hands with Paksi; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Honved is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with HNK Rijeka, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Osman Hadžikić 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 words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Honved interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Krisztian Botka keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“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 offer went to Paksi this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. James Pradic has, at Honved, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$63.0K was the most the club would pay and Vasas were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Tepliakov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ákos Zuigeber signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 10 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Honved they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Osman Hadžikić 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. Makan Traoré is living that version at Honved, and it tends to show in the first month.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maroje Kostopeč has just signed for Honved, and for once the answer mattered.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Đorđe Glišović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Honved the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Đorđe Glišović has agreed terms with MTK Budapest for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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 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.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
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.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Osman Hadžikić has taken the hint, and Honved are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Darío Hidalgo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and István Márk Pekár 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Varga 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 Ákos Zuigeber signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Honved they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
Something was said to Darío Hidalgo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
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 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 Varga 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 Miron Mucsányi 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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
Joel Fameyeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“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.
Position 10 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Honved is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Edin Ajdinović 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 Patrik Pinte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Szilveszter Hangya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” István Márk Pekár and Honved agree another 3 years.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 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 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 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 Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Marko Tomić has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Honved is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Varga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Szilveszter Hangya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Feb 2028
7 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
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 Edin Ajdinović 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.
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.
24 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.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Enzo Ekuba has just signed for Honved, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Hidalgo 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.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 10 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Honved had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Puskas Akademia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Paksi for Dominik Földi 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.
Osman Hadžikić 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 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edin Ajdinović 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Szilveszter Hangya trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Everything agreed with Puskas Akademia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Honved had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fehervar, 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.
Add another name to the list: Paksi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dominik Földi. The answer from Honved has not changed — yet.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Zoltan Lisztes 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Janos Bese has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
“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.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Csontos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Honved have made the call to Ferencvaros. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“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.
The name of Mouhamed Souare has come up in conversations Honved were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Position 10 on 15 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.
1 for Edin Ajdinović, marked 7.33, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A point taken on 92 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.
0‑4 against Puskas Akademia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Zoltan Szalai to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Joel Fameyeh
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Ákos Zuigeber takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ákos Zuigeber provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Bence Varga has agreed terms with MTK Budapest for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
“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.
Squad13 Dec 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Zoltan Szalai has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Honved they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Puskas Akademia go through and Honved go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Honved.
Squad29 Nov 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.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Vasas had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ákos Baki.
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 dugout22 Nov 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.” Zoltan Szalai chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other 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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Paksi were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Edin Ajdinović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
“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.
“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.
Squad8 Nov 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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 Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
0‑3 to MTK Budapest, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
Something was said to Szilveszter Hangya and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
1‑2 to Ujpest, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Zoltan Szalai to a room that had heard them before.
MTK Budapest 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.
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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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.
Position 11, 7 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.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ákos Baki, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Zoltan Szalai left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
36 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.
0‑4 to Ferencvaros, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Zoltan Szalai to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutKevin Varga has become a man the manager trusts
45 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.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
Bekescsaba made Honved work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad20 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dominik Csontos has his answer from Honved; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
0‑3 to Fehervar, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
At 23 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Zoltan Szalai to a room that had heard them before.
A brace, and Joel Fameyeh takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Fameyeh provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Siracusa is saying, and nobody at Honved is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 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 Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 89, against Vasas, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Branko Pauljević obliged against Haladas. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Honved.
“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 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Osman Hadžikić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.
Squad30 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Tibor Szabó was one of the reasons people came, and $400.0K does not replace that by itself.
Osman Hadžikić 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Debrecen scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A mark of 7.80, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Đorđe Glišović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Player ratingsThe cruellest goal, and it is Norbert Balogh's
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 shirt still fits. Ádám Somogyi is back at Honved, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas and Honved agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 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.
23 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.
Joel Fameyeh had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Ujpest were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
3 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Osman Hadžikić 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. David Lang has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mate Lang is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktor Kleinheisler has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktor Botka has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 offer from MTK Budapest for Dominik Csontos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Rennais have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 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.
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.
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 Bonifác Csonka is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Patrik Pinte a promise
48 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.
Honved offered $660.0K; Ferencvaros said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Honved this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Teplice have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
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.
A loan enquiry to Wolfsberger AC: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 have gone to Ferencvaros 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.
Honved had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Osijek, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Wycombe Wanderers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
64 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.
Everything agreed with NK Osijek, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Alverca keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. István Márk Pekár is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Osman Hadžikić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Kevin Kállai has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
71 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Diosgyor have kept their man, and Honved go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
$62.0K on the table at Ferencvaros. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Honved offered $63.0K; Puskas Akademia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The phone has started ringing about Darío Hidalgo again, and this time the name on the line is Diosgyor. Honved are listening politely and promising nothing.
79 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.
“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.
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 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
Wycombe Wanderers 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Branko Pauljević's mistake
86 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The offer from Diosgyor 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.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Vojvodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 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.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Honved have had the benefit of it.
Osman Hadžikić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It 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.
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.
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Norbert Balogh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Honved lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Alex Szabó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
116 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.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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 Dominik Csontos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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.
125 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bence Varga has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Bence Varga was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
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.
Joel Fameyeh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Igor Jeličić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I 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 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ákos Zuigeber signs something — a contract at Honved or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Márk Szelényi is on it.
Osman Hadžikić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Mitrović 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 watch every Honved game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Debrecen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
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 dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Branko Pauljević'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.
16 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Igor Jeličić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Osman Hadžikić is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutÁkos Zuigeber knocks on the manager's door
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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Norbert Balogh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Honved lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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.
Osman Hadžikić 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Honved training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Jeličić 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.” Kevin Kántor has his answer from Honved; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Honved have no good answer.
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 Patrik Pinte has written the date down.
Joel Fameyeh 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.
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.
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.