The deal with Szentlőrinc 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kisvárda offered $210.0K; Kazincbarcika 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.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Kisvárda
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ryan Johnson has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Kisvárda have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
$930.0K on the table at Szentlőrinc. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Kazincbarcika 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.
$110.0K on the table at Kecskeméti TE. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
Kisvárda spend $6.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $6.2M for Davo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Fameyeh is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
$6.2M on the table at Pontevedra. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kisvárda can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Akhmat Grozny keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Jul 2028
11 new faces, and Kisvárda are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I watch every Kisvárda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at BVSC-Zugló runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kisvárda have gone to Bekescsaba 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.
The chase for Zoárd Nagy ended with $1.7M changing hands and Puskas Akademia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The deal with Crvena Zvezda 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.
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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Zoárd Nagy from Puskas Akademia for $1.7M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
In brief
SquadWords at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kisvárda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Kisvárda and Puskas Akademia have settled on $1.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kisvárda have done the hard part with Ferencvaros, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damjan Đokanović 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The offer went to Ferencvaros 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.
The offer from Bekescsaba for Ilarion Tuhai 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kisvárda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Kisvárda have gone to Puskas Akademia 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.
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. Levski have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Zsombor Hős is 20, and Kisvárda have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
$190.0K settles it between the clubs for Zsombor Hős
Vasas have accepted the money. What Kisvárda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The chase for Lorenzo Prso ended with $340.0K changing hands and Fehervar out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
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. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nikola Jokić is 20, and Kisvárda have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Kisvárda have made the call to Crvena Zvezda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Matanović has become a man the manager trusts
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bekescsaba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kisvárda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Fehervar; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deal with BVSC-Zugló 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.
Tonislav Yordanov 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Đorđe Petrović has just signed for Kisvárda, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
SquadWords at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Karcag have accepted the money. What Kisvárda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Kisvárda have gone to Kecskeméti TE 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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.
The phone has started ringing about Levente Szőr again, and this time the name on the line is Debrecen. Kisvárda are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kisvárda had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Samuel Petráš, on 15 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like it.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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 dugoutIlarion Tuhai asks for a word with the manager
Serginho 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kisvárda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 2, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Serginho was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Kisvárda is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Matanović signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kisvárda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Serginho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
5 new faces, and Kisvárda 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 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Finn Baks 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 Joel Fameyeh signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Kisvárda has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 Kisvárda know it.
Serginho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović 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.
Serginho 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kisvárda will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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 Kisvárda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
7 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jasmin Mešanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Serginho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Kisvárda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kevin Körmendi has written the date down.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Serginho 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Finn Baks has, at Kisvárda, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Jovičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ferencvaros scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kisvárda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kisvárda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
7 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.
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.
Market6 Mar 2028
Illia Popovych returns from a loan that taught him nothing
1 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kisvárda, another week without a signature from Giorgos Kanellopoulos.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giorgos Kanellopoulos 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 Joel Fameyeh signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Serginho 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 Feb 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kisvárda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Levente Szőr trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kisvárda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Serginho 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.
Kazincbarcika will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dániel Gyollai has pre-agreed a move to Kisvárda, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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 Kisvárda, and 1 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksandar Jovičić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jasmin Mešanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kisvárda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kisvárda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Giorgos Kanellopoulos signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Vladimir Ilić is still in the building
Kisvárda close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Kisvárda asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Joel Fameyeh
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Joel Fameyeh has come out of that comparison in the side, and Kisvárda have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joel Fameyeh signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Serginho 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kisvárda 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 Kisvárda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 2, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Kazincbarcika for István Soltész 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.
Serginho 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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maipú have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Kisvárda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bekescsaba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kisvárda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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. Paksi have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Honved. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić 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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Joel Fameyeh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ajka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kisvárda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kisvárda can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Budafoki MTE is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Debrecen have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Samuel Petráš
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kisvárda can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Kisvárda have had the benefit of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Soroksár have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Ilarion Tuhai has come up in conversations Kisvárda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fehervar next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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 Aleksandar Jovičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kisvárda, and 1 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Samuel Petráš is on it.
“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 Kisvárda know it.
Giuliano Cerato 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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Puskas Akademia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Bence Lisztes to a room that had heard them before.
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.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Giuliano Cerato 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.
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 Aleksandar Jovičić.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bence Lisztes on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serginho. 1‑0 against MTK Budapest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Kisvárda will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Samuel Petráš now has 24 of them across 165 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Serginho 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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tonislav Yordanov. 2‑0 against Diosgyor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bence Lisztes, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Kisvárda man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Tonislav Yordanov was the best thing in any of them.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Serginho 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 Nov 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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 Maksym Zaderaka is on 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 Kisvárda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Diosgyor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Kisvárda would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
17 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Amadou Diakité obliged against Vasas. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Kisvárda.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Kisvárda scored in the 104th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Kisvárda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Something was said to Giuliano Cerato and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I watch every Kisvárda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bekescsaba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Giuliano Cerato 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 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bence Lisztes after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Samuel Petráš is on it.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 15 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kisvárda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Serginho 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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Maksym Zaderaka is on it.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kisvárda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 at Kisvárda 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bogdan Melnyk’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kisvárda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kisvárda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tonislav Yordanov signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić 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 Kisvárda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bekescsaba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vladimir Ilić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
1 for Vladimir Ilić, marked 7.48, 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.
Serginho was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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 Samuel Petráš is on it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Serginho 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serginho. 1‑0 against Puskas Akademia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bence Lisztes could afford to be generous.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. MTK Budapest moved on, Dominik Soltész reports back to Kisvárda, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
8.48. 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MTK Budapest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kisvárda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Kisvárda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Kisvárda close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Csákvár have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Kisvárda, and 1 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Kisvárda prefer.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Giuliano Cerato arrives from Instituto with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Bence Biró obliged against Tiszakécske. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Kisvárda.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Serginho 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Matanović 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.
Kisvárda asked and Sakaryaspor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Joel Fameyeh scored in the 87th minute, Ujpest had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Kisvárda took the lot.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$180.0K settles it between the clubs for Dávid Banai
Ujpest have accepted the money. What Kisvárda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Serginho 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.
$45.0K was the most the club would pay and Puskas Akademia 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.
Kisvárda asked and Nyíregyháza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Kisvárda know it.
Kisvárda have gone to Puskas Akademia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kisvárda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Serginho 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Szoboszlai 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. Peter Orban 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kisvárda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Kisvárda asked and Lecce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Benfica keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Serginho and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksym Zaderaka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Samuel Petráš’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kisvárda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutBálint Oláh knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kisvárda can pretend not to have heard.
Kisvárda asked and Andorra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
ZTE paid $160.0K and Kisvárda took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić 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 Kisvárda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bekescsaba runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mezőkövesd drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Aleksandar Rac enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Red Bull Salzburg is saying, and nobody at Kisvárda 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 Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kisvárda asked and Puskas Akademia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Kisvárda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Mezőkövesd 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.
$1.0M on the table at Szentlőrinc. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Levski keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Serginho 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.
Kisvárda asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Kisvárda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kisvárda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Levski, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Kisvárda 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 Jasmin Mešanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Kisvárda know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
$1.2M settles it between the clubs for Dominik Cipf
Ajka have accepted the money. What Kisvárda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Kisvárda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fehervar paid $140.0K and Kisvárda took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksym Zaderaka 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.
Kisvárda asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rostov keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kisvárda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksym Zaderaka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Debrecen; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
Kisvárda asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Bekescsaba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Illia Popovych. The answer from Kisvárda has not changed — yet.
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.” Alex Hrabina has his answer from Kisvárda; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kisvárda had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
28 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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.
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.
Position 4 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Samuel Petráš 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić 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 ratingsNinety minutes of Maksym Zaderaka at his very best
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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 Jasmin Mešanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladimir Ilić, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrija Milić's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Every 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 Samuel Petráš is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Kisvárda will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Jovičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Martin Chlumecký is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kisvárda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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 Bogdan Melnyk is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maksym Zaderaka signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasmin Mešanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Soma Novothny is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kisvárda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joel Fameyeh signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Joel Fameyeh 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 Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić 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.
71 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Andrija Milić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
“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 Kisvárda know it.
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 Aleksandar Jovičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kisvárda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bence Tóth commits to Kisvárda for another 4 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasmin Mešanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Position 4, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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 Soma Novothny's mistake
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Samuel Petráš: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Jovičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kisvárda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jasmin Mešanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Kisvárda will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
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 at Kisvárda 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.
Position 4, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“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 Kisvárda, 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 Kisvárda 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kisvárda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Bogdan Melnyk is on it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrija Milić'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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Šamorín waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kisvárda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kisvárda asked and Olimpia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kisvárda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Kisvárda that is a harder question to 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 Soma Novothny has written the date down.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. ETO Győr moved on, Gábor Molnár reports back to Kisvárda, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 Kisvárda know 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Kisvárda 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 Aleksandar Jovičić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Kisvárda close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Kisvárda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rubin, 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 Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kisvárda asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Šamorín have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Illia Popovych. The answer from Kisvárda has not changed — yet.
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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Kisvárda know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Everything agreed with Akhmat Grozny, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rizespor have kept their man, and Kisvárda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrija Milić'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.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Matanović has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ilarion Tuhai
Position 4 on 36 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.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The chase for Samuel Petráš ended with $1.2M changing hands and ETO Győr out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
Add another name to the list: Nyíregyháza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gábor Molnár. The answer from Kisvárda has not changed — yet.
Ajka paid $240.0K and Kisvárda took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Samuel Petráš was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.2M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
1 for Dominik Soltész, marked 7.77, 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.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jasmin Mešanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Kisvárda will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bence Lisztes on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nyíregyháza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Marko Matanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bence Lisztes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tonislav Yordanov and Kisvárda agree another 4 years.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have 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 Kisvárda know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda 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 Jasmin Mešanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ujpest scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Ilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Bence Lisztes was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kisvárda dressing room was either.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Diosgyor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Jovičić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Kisvárda 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.
Kazincbarcika next, and one man in the Kisvárda 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. Kisvárda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 5, 19 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kisvárda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Illia Popovych: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Ilić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksym Zaderaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marko Matanović has come out of that comparison in the side, and Kisvárda have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bence Lisztes could afford to be generous.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kisvárda are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Up for the corner, and Andrija Milić delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andrija Milić scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A goal on 88 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Kisvárda 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Ilić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. ZTE defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kisvárda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kisvárda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kisvárda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Illia Popovych is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 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 Bogdan Melnyk is on it.
ZTE next, and one man in the Kisvárda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Soma Novothny trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Joel Fameyeh is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Bence Lisztes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Vladimir Ilić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bence Lisztes on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nyíregyháza next, and one man in the Kisvárda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maksym Zaderaka signs something — a contract at Kisvárda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maksym Zaderaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bence Tóth was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.91 on the card, and the Kisvárda support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Bence Lisztes kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Paksi next, and one man in the Kisvárda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutIstván Soltész has become a man the manager trusts
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Máté Gyurkó reports back to Kisvárda with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Kisvárda will try again when the window opens; Ferencvaros may not be selling by then.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Kisvárda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksym Zaderaka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bence Lisztes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Kisvárda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Ferencvaros 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Kisvárda until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austria Wien have kept their man, and Kisvárda 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 Vladimir Ilić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.