10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Paksi were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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 7.74 for the rest of it.
Vasas have made the call to Pandurii. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout16 Aug 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.” David Gulacsi, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
10 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Bence Banó-Szabó will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Vasas escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
7.59, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
János Uram 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.
Vasas asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8.10. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Haladas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
4 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.
Vasas asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 6.62 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
András Radó 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.
Vasas 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Haladas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jozef Urblik signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Vasas that is a harder question to answer.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vasas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Diosgyor, the club has $720.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spartak Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
MTK Budapest pay $480.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Vasas asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Sebastiano Nava is in the works
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vasas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Add another name to the list: Bekescsaba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bence Pethő. The answer from Vasas has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vasas have done the hard part with Spartak Moscow, 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 Vasas 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. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Vasas 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 Patrick Iyinbor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vasas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $270.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bekescsaba drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Dominik Kocsis 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 terraces5 Jul 2027
Vasas spend $270.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $270.0K for János Takács, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Vasas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Everything agreed with Bekescsaba, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Dominik Kocsis 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.
Vasas asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A loan enquiry to Spartak Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Zsombor Molnár has gone, the accounts have $340.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Vasas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rodina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Sigma Olomouc have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vasas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Vasas 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.
The deal with Rodina 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.
$220.0K was the most the club would pay and Ujpest 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.
Marin Jurina was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $640.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Bence Pethő 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.
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.
Vasas and MTK Budapest have settled on $640.0K. 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.
Vasas asked and Ujpest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
András Radó 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 words a physio says slowly. 39 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Dominik Kocsis 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 had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor 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.
Market31 May 2027
Márk Engedi returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 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.
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 Jozef Urblik signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Vasas will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vasas 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 Botond Baráth trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vasas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses 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 Vasas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vasas, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. András Radó has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Dominik Kocsis 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 had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor 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 Milán Tóth signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Benjámin Cseke trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Dominik Kocsis 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mathis Delannay has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every 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 Rajmund Horváth is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jozef Urblik signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bence Pethő 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 had been thinking. Bence Banó-Szabó is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vasas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutGabor Lang asks for a word with the manager
SquadQuestions about Matei Popa on the training pitch
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Jozef Urblik
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vasas, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Kocsis signs something — a contract at Vasas 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 Vasas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutGabor Lang asks for a word with the manager
“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 Vasas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dominik Kocsis 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 had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vasas, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Dominik Kocsis 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Vasas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Sztojka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vasas, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Kocsis signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Vasas would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Dominik Kocsis 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.
“I watch every Vasas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Honved runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Tamás Markek has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutKenneth Otigba asks for a word with the manager
Tamás Markek 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 had been thinking. Bence Banó-Szabó is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Vasas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Iyinbor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Iyinbor 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 Vasas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Haladas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vasas has been clear about where Botond Baráth stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Kocsis signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chornomorets had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Vasas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dominik Kocsis 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tamas 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. Gabor Lang has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Sztojka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vasas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vasas can pretend not to have heard.
Dominik Kocsis 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 Patrick Iyinbor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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 Vasas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until János Uram signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Tamás Markek a promise
“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 Vasas, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vasas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Add another name to the list: Chornomorets have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Milán Tóth. The answer from Vasas has not changed — yet.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Vasas close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas 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 Szabolcs Mezei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Vasas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vasas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Vilmos Jován
“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 Vasas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ujpest keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Szabolcs Mezei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vasas asked and Apollon 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dominik Kocsis signs something — a contract at Vasas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Tamás Markek a promise
The offer from Puskas Akademia for Zsombor Molnár 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.
Vasas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ferencvaros, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
András Radó 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.
Vasas asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrick Iyinbor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Barnabás Németh was one of the reasons people came, and $570.0K does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Haladas for Bálint Faragó 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Debrecen is saying, and nobody at Vasas is enjoying the guessing.
András Radó 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.
Vasas asked and Rodina 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 phone has started ringing about Zsombor Molnár again, and this time the name on the line is Puskas Akademia. Vasas are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vasas 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 Vasas 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 Szabolcs Mezei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Attila Csaba Girsik again, and this time the name on the line is Honved. Vasas are listening politely and promising nothing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 David Gulacsi left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutBarnabás Németh is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Zsombor Molnár
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Dominik Kocsis 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 had been thinking. Szabolcs Mezei 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Vasas pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by David Gulacsi to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Vasas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dominik Kocsis 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 had been thinking. Szabolcs Mezei 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” David Gulacsi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vasas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Vasas will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kenneth Otigba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Gulacsi after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Kenneth Otigba
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Milán Tóth will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Vasas escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 9.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
András Radó 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.
Dominik Kocsis 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 had been thinking. Szabolcs Mezei 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 make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by David Gulacsi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Honved in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas 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 Kenneth Otigba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” David Gulacsi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Vasas dressing room was either.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Patrik Kovács’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vasas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutSándor Hidi M. asks for a word with the manager
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Milán Tóth takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Milán Tóth provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3 and 24 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Dušan Jovanović, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.20
A mark of 8.20 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.
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.
Dominik Kocsis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dušan Jovanović is the division's best young player this month
At 20 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. Vasas will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dušan Jovanović did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Dominik Kocsis 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.
He is 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kenneth Otigba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that András Radó was the best thing in any of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Zsombor Molnár
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vasas can pretend not to have heard.
András Radó 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 Szabolcs Mezei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” David Gulacsi kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Szabolcs Mezei 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Botond Baráth
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dušan Jovanović did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Milán Tóth 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.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Patrick Iyinbor has come out of that comparison in the side, and Vasas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
András Radó 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 Kenneth Otigba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.89, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
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.” David Gulacsi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Vasas 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Puskas Akademia will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vasas 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 7.59 for the rest of it.
András Radó 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.
He is 20 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.
The dugout21 Sep 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.” David Gulacsi, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vasas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from BATE for Patrik Kovács 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Debrecen moved on, Zsombor Molnár reports back to Vasas, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bence Banó-Szabó is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Vasas will try again when the window opens; Deportivo Tachira may not be selling by then.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenneth Otigba 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.
Marked 8.07 — 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bence Banó-Szabó 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.
Paksi go through and Vasas go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
The offer from Honved for Barnabás Németh 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.
$2.5M on the table at Deportivo Tachira. 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 deal with Radnicki Nis 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.
András Radó was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.4M for Dominik Kocsis, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vasas have done the hard part with Debrecen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sigma Olomouc is saying, and nobody at Vasas is enjoying the guessing.
András Radó 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.
$40.0K was the most the club would pay and MTK Budapest 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.
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Milán Tóth was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.68. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrás Radó was on a different afternoon to everybody else
$1.4M on the table at Debrecen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Vasas offered $830.0K; Puskas Akademia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenneth Otigba 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vasas, another week without a signature from Tamás Markek.
A loan enquiry to Sigma Olomouc: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Vasas 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.
Vasas 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.
András Radó 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Krisztian Gazdag is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Istvan 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. Gabor Szalai 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Peter Gulacsi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vasas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Vasas and Haladas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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. 12 actions, 7.66, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenneth Otigba 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.