It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest 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 Danilo Mitrović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matija Ljujić is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ákos Sigér has his answer from Ujpest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.” Laszlo Szalai chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Iuri Medeiros 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.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhamed Tijani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nejc Gradišar. 3‑2 against Debrecen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Iuri Medeiros 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.
Marked 8.38 — 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 3‑2, Laszlo Szalai could afford to be generous.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Krisztofer Horváth reports back to Ujpest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aljoša Matko 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Krisztian Kleinheisler is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tamas Dibusz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Ujpest 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Iuri Medeiros reports back to Ujpest with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Ujpest close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer from MTK Budapest for Bálint Geiger was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ujpest 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aljoša Matko. 3‑1 against MTK Budapest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Add another name to the list: Puskas Akademia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Pál Helmich. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Krisztián Necula, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Iuri Medeiros has come up in conversations Ujpest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
SquadWords at Ujpest training over how hard people work
4Edition
The Ujpest Post
24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Iuri Medeiros takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iuri Medeiros provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$4.3M on the table at Haladas. 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 from Fehervar for Pál Helmich 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.
Ujpest have gone to Honved 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 Ujpest 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 Aljoša Matko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Aljoša Matko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The offer from Diosgyor for Bálint Geiger 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.
Ujpest had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ujpest offered $820.0K; Vasas 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.
Patrizio Stronati 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 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Vasas 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ujpest have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Puskas Akademia have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bekescsaba paid $200.0K and Ujpest took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aljoša Matko 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.
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
198 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Patrizio Stronati 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 Péter Szappanos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Pál Helmich again, and this time the name on the line is Haladas. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ujpest hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.