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 Nimród Baranyai is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Ujpest would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
18 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” BVSC-Zugló suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Ujpest, and the summer will force it.
Myung-jun Kim 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 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
João Nunes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dominik Kaczvinszki and Ujpest agree another 4 years.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Noah Fenyő is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutMyung-jun Kim asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Arijan Ademi
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
Myung-jun Kim 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.
0‑1 to Vasas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Radmanovac is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 goals in 12 games at BVSC-Zugló — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Something was said to Iuri Medeiros and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Zoltan Nikolic to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Diosgyor will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ujpest were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Iuri Medeiros takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iuri Medeiros provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The 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.
Position 3, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Myung-jun Kim
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Nikola Radmanovac 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.
0‑2 to Kazincbarcika, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
10 goals in 10 games at BVSC-Zugló — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Zoltan Nikolic after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Tiago Gonçalves 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 Nikola Radmanovac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ujpest 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 Kazincbarcika in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ujpest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutArijan Ademi 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 Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
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 7.76 for the rest of it.
Nikola Radmanovac scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to ETO Győr, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nikola Radmanovac had Ujpest level again within 2 minutes, and ETO Győr never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Vuk Boškan is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Ujpest will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Iuri Medeiros has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ujpest scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Vuk Boškan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
13 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.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Debrecen left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Radmanovac is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kazincbarcika had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Ujpest had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Genk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Myung-jun Kim 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 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $545.4K of what Ujpest paid for Joel Fameyeh is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Ujpest close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 13 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.
Add another name to the list: Kazincbarcika have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Noah Fenyő. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sturm Graz is saying, and nobody at Ujpest 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Yaroslav Helesh obliged against Bekescsaba. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Ujpest.
“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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Bekescsaba had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Ujpest did not stop to explain themselves.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 7.98 for the rest of 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Kisvárda kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Ujpest will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Vuk Boškan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-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.
“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 Ujpest know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Maribor have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Aljoša Matko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Aljoša Matko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ferencvaros made Ujpest work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Nunes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7.70, 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.
Ujpest had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Genk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ujpest asked and Slavia Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Ujpest, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ujpest moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Zoltan Nikolic, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
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.
Ujpest asked and Cukaricki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nikola Radmanovac 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.
Ujpest asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
João Nunes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Vasas next, and one man in the Ujpest dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ujpest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 2, 48 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Vojvodina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Ashanti Gold for Joel Fameyeh 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.
“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 phone has started ringing about Pál Helmich again, and this time the name on the line is Nyíregyháza. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
Tiago Gonçalves 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. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Karcag 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.
The name of Csanád Fehér has come up in conversations Ujpest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Nikola Radmanovac 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.
37 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.
19 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest 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 Ujpest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 130 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have 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 Ujpest know it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He 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.
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Muhamed Tijani was one of the reasons people came, and $2.5M does not replace that by itself.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Attila Fiola has his answer from Ujpest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ujpest will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arne Maier signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 146 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ferencvaros waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ujpest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $540.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. ZTE drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
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.
10 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Pavlo Isenko is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Viktor Baier is in the works
154 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ujpest had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Barnabás Bese 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 one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 11 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I watch every Ujpest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kecskeméti TE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
3 goals in 15 games at Fehervar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ujpest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arne Maier signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ujpest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Nejc Gradišar
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 Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Heitor has written the date down.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from João Nunes’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
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.
“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 Ujpest know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ujpest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
3 goals in 15 games at Fehervar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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; Ujpest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everybody at Ujpest saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ujpest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Aljoša Matko’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Arne Maier is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
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.
Something was said to Aljoša Matko and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every Ujpest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Soroksár runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ujpest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
Position 2, 48 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Ujpest, and 10 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 goals in 26 games at Mezőkövesd — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Heitor has written the date down.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Krisztofer Horváth had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Aljoša Matko 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.
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.
“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 Ujpest know it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ujpest has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Add another name to the list: KFUM Oslo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Krisztofer Horváth. The answer from Ujpest has not changed — yet.
“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; Ujpest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
Nikola Radmanovac was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He 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.
4 goals in 8 games at Soroksár — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Ujpest 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ujpest 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 Ujpest would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
6 goals in 24 games at Mezőkövesd — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ujpest updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Matija Ljujić has written the date down.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ujpest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have 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 Ujpest know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ujpest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Ujpest opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Krisztofer Horváth stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ujpest will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Noah Fenyő has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ujpest have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arijan Ademi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Karcag for Gleofilo 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Ujpest close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 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.
Aljoša Matko 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Radmanovac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2 on 48 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Bilje 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.91, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Nikola Radmanovac 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.
Chances created: 13. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
The dugout18 Jan 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.” Zoltan Nikolic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Márió Zeke
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Joel Fameyeh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Ujpest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kecskeméti TE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout11 Jan 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.” Zoltan Nikolic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑3 against Ferencvaros, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The offer from Wa All Stars for Joel Fameyeh 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.
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. Ujpest will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Ujpest have gone to Bilje 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 name of Barnabás Bese has come up in conversations Ujpest were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati 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.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ujpest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Attila Fiola 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 8.45 — 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Ujpest 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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Iuri Medeiros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. 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.
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 Muhamed Tijani.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ujpest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Ujpest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.06, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ujpest pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Zoltan Nikolic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ujpest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Kisvárda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhamed Tijani 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.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ujpest can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nikola Radmanovac 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Zoltan Nikolic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The words a physio says slowly. 137 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Arijan Ademi 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Barnabás Bese’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ujpest needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Heitor has written the date down.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Márk Dékei’s exile
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ujpest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match7 Nov 2026
Arne Maier wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Arne Maier found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and ZTE went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Ujpest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Stronati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 151 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ujpest told Patrizio Stronati something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Iuri Medeiros
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Position 1, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
90 minutes played. Krisztofer Horváth found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Puskas Akademia went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Aljoša Matko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ujpest 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 Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Patrizio Stronati’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ujpest needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arne Maier signs something — a contract at Ujpest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gleofilo has written the date down.
Next up on the road: Puskas Akademia, position 7. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Patrizio Stronati has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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; Ujpest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ujpest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Arijan Ademi 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.
Marked 8.36 — 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout28 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.” Zoltan Nikolic kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 combined actions and 6.93. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ujpest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ujpest can pretend not to have heard.
$700.0K was the most the club would pay and Karcag 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.
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.
10 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ujpest and Kazincbarcika have settled on $1.5M. 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Ujpest until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer went to Karcag 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.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Ujpest will try again when the window opens; Szeged-Csanád GA may not be selling by then.
Everything agreed with Szeged-Csanád GA, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrizio Stronati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arijan Ademi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aljoša Matko. 1‑0 against Kisvárda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Muhamed Tijani had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Szeged-Csanád GA have kept their man, and Ujpest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Arijan Ademi 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 7.77. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Zoltan Nikolic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The phone has started ringing about Muhamed Tijani again, and this time the name on the line is Oțelul Galați. Ujpest are listening politely and promising nothing.
Ujpest asked and Debrecen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ujpest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Ujpest and Puskas Akademia have settled on $740.0K. 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nikola Radmanovac has, at Ujpest, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer from Liepaja for Luka Radulović 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.
The offer went to Ajka 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.
Ujpest 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $767.8K — a club that wants György Hursán enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Krisztofer Horváth provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Ujpest asked and FC Copenhagen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Zoltan Nikolic could afford to be generous.