Welcome back to my ongoing Football Manager 2021 series, as Shama Deadman’s coaching journey has taken him to his third club in a third different country.
After five years honing his craft in Wales and Portugal, Shama has taken on a new challenge with Győr in Hungary’s second division. In case you missed it, you can find out how he got here by reading Part 21, where we also see how the football world looks five years into this save.
You now join us in the summer of 2025, as we take our first look at Shama’s new club. After a couple of lean seasons, can he awaken this sleeping giant of Hungarian football?
CLUB 3: GYŐR
The latest stop on my managerial tour is ETO FC Győr. I think it’s pronounced something like “gjur”. I’m not a linguist, though, so if there are any Hungarians reading this, please feel free to correct me.
Situated along the River Danube, Győr was once at the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, being roughly halfway between Vienna and Budapest. Nowadays, this city in north-western Hungary – a 30-minute drive from the Slovakian border – is home to just over 125,000 people.
The local football club was formed in 1904 and has had many name changes over the years, but has always been known simply as Győr. They first flirted with top-flight football in the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that they became a serious force in the Hungarian game.
Győr won their first Nemzeti Bajnokság league championship in 1963. They then reached the European Cup Semi Finals on their debut in 1964/1965, only losing out to Eusébio’s Benfica. Following on from that, they won the Magyar Kupa (Hungary’s FA Cup) in three straight years between 1965 and 1967.
The team enjoyed another golden period when they lifted back-to-back championships in 1982 and 1983, with coach József Verebes producing his own Hungarian spin on Dutch ‘Total Football’. Győr had to wait another three decades for their fourth – and most recent – league title, as manager Attila Pintér and former Stevenage defender Zoltán Lipták led them to glory in the 2012/2013 season.
However, things soon went south. Pintér was appointed Hungary’s national manager a few months later, and when Győr’s owners went bankrupt in 2015, the club was kicked out of the top flight. They have since spent most of the last decade languishing in the second-tier NB II, apart from a brief return to the NB I in 2022/2023, when they were relegated after a single season.
While Győr’s finances has improved since local businessman Dávid Takacs took over in 2024, the team has had little stability on the pitch. After finishing 9th in the NB II in each of the last two seasons, the club have appointed me as their FIFTH manager in FIVE years. I will need to turn their fortunes around sharpish, because the board won’t hesitate to sack me if I don’t!
There are 20 teams in the NB II, with the top two being promoted to the NB I, and the bottom three dropping into the NB III. Our biggest rivals for promotion will be Debrecen, who won seven league championships between 2005 and 2014 but are now a yo-yo club.
We play at the 15,600-capacity ETO Park – which is Hungary’s third-largest club football stadium after Ferencváros’ Groupama Aréna (22,000) and Debrecen’s Nagyerdei Stadion (20,340). Despite that, our largest average attendance last season was just 1,431.
Our facilities aren’t great, though they still compare favourably to most other teams in our division. We’ve also got a good record for developing our own youth players, which is just as well. One of the league rules is that you must name a minimum of TWO under-20 players in a matchday squad, at least ONE of whom must start.
BACKROOM STAFF
There’ve been a few changes to the backroom since I arrived, including the hiring of a new Director of Football. László Katona might be as good at Negotiating as Kerry Katona, but he’s at least semi-decent at Judging Player Ability and Potential, so he can certainly be of use to our recruitment team. I also have the luxury of employing TWO scouts, having only been able to use one at my previous clubs.
Sadly, I couldn’t bring over any coaches from Espinho. My assistant Luke Morgan had extended his contract there, while Edgar Davids didn’t want to leave his luxury beachside apartment for a less glamorous Hungarian abode. I can’t imagine why.
We did have an assistant manager when I took over, but he was poached by top-flight Kisvárda in late July. That means I’m currently looking for a number 2 who shares my tactical philosophies – and speaks both Hungarian and English.
Despite that, we still have one of the best coaching set-ups in our league, with our goalkeeping coaches being particularly impressive. We also have strong recruitment and medical departments, though we’re not so hot at analysing data.
Long-time readers might also have noticed that a couple of my former Cambrian & Clydach players have come over from Wales to join our youth coaching set-up.
Right-winger Lewis Ellis had just retired after five years with the Cam Army, and he would start his managerial journey with our Under-19s. Alongside him was ex-Cambrian captain Ceri Morgan, whom I had finally forgiven for buggering off to Goytre United in 2021. Just as I want to develop our youngsters into first-team stars, I am also giving Lewis and Ceri every opportunity to become successful coaches.
TRANSFER WINDOW
Before I take you through my new squad, let me give you a summary of my transfer business. I released seven players whose contracts were up, and I also shifted a 34-year-old Ukrainian right-back who was on big wages. I also made £60,000 through selling a couple of youngsters who weren’t going to make the grade.
One player who I was disappointed to lose was Gergely Szántó. The Hungary Under-19s centre-half had already agreed to join Honvéd – one of the country’s traditional giants – on a free transfer. I tried to get him back on loan, but no dice.
I won’t dwell too much on these incomings, as you’ll meet them in the squad report anyway, but here’s a quick summary. Having changed too much too soon at Espinho, I tried to be more conservative at Győr, signing ‘only’ nine new first-teamers (plus a couple of reserve full-backs).
Though we had plenty of money in the transfer kitty, I decided not to spend too much until I had a better idea of the club’s monthly cashflow. With that in mind, I forked out just £31,000 on a couple of players. Naturally, they were both left-backs. You might recognise one of them.
Simão Rocha was the only member of my Espinho team who: 1) was good enough to improve this squad, 2) was happy to swap sunny Portugal for not-so-sunny Hungary, and C) didn’t demand huge wages to do so. As much as I would’ve loved to bring in goalkeeper Kadú and striker Miguel Pereira, I wouldn’t jeopardise our ambitions by turning Győr into Deadman’s Old Boys.
That said, I did sign another of my former players. Liam Edwards probably isn’t cut out for this level, but he’s a versatile attacker who can get some gametime with our reserves and come into the first-team if things get desperate. (Also, Liam had been a free agent for 12 months after leaving Espinho, and I was afraid he would retire before his time.)
SQUAD REPORT
We now come to my annual squad report, and I’m cautiously optimistic about how my new Győr squad looks after another busy summer. As usual, I’ve written a small summary of each player, as well as attaching the profiles of those I expect to play most regularly.
While Kadú hasn’t joined me in Hungary (yet), our current goalkeepers are still pretty useful for this level, so they’ll do for now. Gergő Rácz is younger, more agile, and has been at the club longer than Péter Szappanos, though the latter’s experience and intelligence can’t be ignored. [Wait until they both screw up and you rush sign a new keeper on deadline day! -Chris]
While I didn’t have a great relationship with Simão Rocha at Espinho, I still rate the left-back very highly. He’s got a very solid spread of attributes with few glaring weaknesses, and at 24, his best years are surely still to come. Hot on his heels will be fellow summer signing Barnabás Nagy, who’s a bit quicker if not quite as technically gifted.
At right-back, we have the quick and determined Attila Szabados, who came through the youth system and is now an established starter aged 22. A strong season from him would surely draw plenty of interest from much bigger clubs. Tibor Fehér is Attila’s current understudy, but I see the promising 17-year-old more as a tough-tackling centre-half, so I’m still in the market for another right-back.
Like Szabados, Américo Pereira is a homegrown 22-year-old who forms a key part of our defence. The centre-back – who is of Brazilian descent – is an imposing aerial threat if a little shaky mentally. He’s also rated as a “decent player for most NB I sides”, and I’ve already turned down a £100,000 offer from a first-division club for his services.
The solid Alex Szabó has also attracted interest from the top flight, but he’s agreed to stay on for another year after I promised him that I’d develop our youth players to improve the squad. One of those could be fellow centre-half Dávid Kiss, who is developing steadily and is already in contention for regular first-team football at just 16.
Ukrainian Ivan Kalyuzhnyi is a deep-lying midfielder who has been here since 2023. He served as captain under the previous manager, but he reluctantly gave the armband up as I had doubts about his leadership qualities. He may also struggle to stay in the team, following the arrival of the versatile Belgian workhorse Lars Dendoncker (younger brother of Wolves ace Leander).
The fearless and experienced ball-winner József Windecker started his career at Győr, returning in 2023 after an eight-year journey across eastern Europe. Our other midfield options include the tactically astute Bosnian Damir Sadiković (who scored or assisted 13 goals last season) and the energetic Serbian teenager Nenad Radović (who loves shooting from distance).
I’ll be using inverted wingers on both flanks. On the left, we’ve got the skilful if lethargic Milán Tóth, who was a regular for NB II champions Haladas last season and joins us on loan. His understudy is the pacey Frenchman Ervin Taha, who was signed this summer by the previous regime and has been quite productive in our pre-season friendlies.
Cutting in from the right flank will be Bence Sós – a veteran of nearly 300 games in Hungary’s top two divisions. Bálint Szabó is a decent backup, but he’s been here for four years now without ever really establishing himself as a regular. Instead, I might give opportunities to 17-year-old János Géringer, who’s quick, has a silky first touch, and was our top scorer over pre-season.
At the heart of our attack will be new captain Norbert Kundrák. An athletic player who’s capable of scoring and setting up goals, he will mainly operate as a shadow striker or a target man. The creative and technical Roland Hajdú can also play in that attacking midfield hole, though he is physically limited and is much more suited to playmaking duties.
And then there’s the man I’ll be building the team around – our target man and vice-captain Cyril Nebo. The Nigerian scored 16 goals in 43 competitive games last season, with an average rating of 7.34. While Cyril isn’t the most natural finisher, he has the composure and physical presence to hold the ball up before playing in our quicker attackers.
If Plan A doesn’t work, we do have at least one pacey striker in Soma Lekli, who scored four goals from eight substitute appearances last term. And, of course, we have Liam Edwards, who can play in any attacking role and might still be able to produce some magic every now and then.
Tactically, we’ll be playing a 4-2-3-1 system which – despite the name – is very different from the one I experimented with at Cambrian. For starters, the centre forward is not expected to be our main scorer. As the target man, I want Nebo to be an imposing aerial threat who can create chances for our wingers, as well as the shadow striker behind him.
I’m also trialling a 3-5-2, which will mainly be for those trickier fixtures where we might come under more defensive pressure, yet can still expect to launch quick counter-attacks. As tempted as I was to experiment with the 2-3-3-2 famously deployed by Ferenc Puskás’ Magical Magyars in the 1950s, we’d probably end up losing 6-3 every week!
PRE-SEASON
As pre-seasons go, this is a decent collection of results. Though our direct passing got sloppy at times and our defence had some teething problems, we won all our away games against lower-league opposition, scoring plenty of goals along the way. No absolute annihilations, but it’s early days, so I wasn’t expecting fireworks immediately.
I also took some positives from a couple of home games against NB I opposition. The 3-5-2 held up surprisingly well against ZTE, as we took the lead twice and were only denied victory by an 82nd-minute counter-attack. At least I managed to avoid defeat, unlike Sir Alex Ferguson in his first meeting with Zalaegerszeg in 2002!
Just as I was thinking I was better than Fergie, though, Diósgyőr brought me back down to earth. A couple of lapses in concentration from our defence – and some unlucky shots at the other end – saw us lose 2-0 in a match where we probably deserved more. Hey, that’s how it goes sometimes.
After languishing in mid-table for two straight seasons, the Győr board want to see an immediate improvement under my stewardship. They don’t expect promotion straight away, but a top-four finish will suffice. I suspect that even 5th or 6th might be acceptable if we’re at least putting up a good fight.
The Hungarian media seem to rate our chances pretty highly. Nebo is in the NB II’s dream starting XI, and we are priced as third-favourites to be promoted. Only the two relegated teams – Debrecen and Budafok – have been given shorter odds to return to the NB I.
We are also aiming to reach Round 4 of the Magyar Kupa. That might be a little tricky, as EVERY team (from the top flight to the fourth division) enters the competition at Round 1. We could breeze past three lower-league sides to reach the Last 16, but it’s also possible that we could get league champions Ferencváros in the first round and be wiped out straight away.
This is another big step into the unknown for me – but after woe in Wales and pain in Portugal, I feel hopeful that I’ll finally hit the heights in Hungary.
If you’ve enjoyed this introduction to Győr, you can follow the blog by hitting the ‘Follow’ button below. You can also find me on Twitter @Fuller_FM.
I’ll be back on Friday with the next chapter, where we will see how Győr get on in their first few months under Shama’s stewardship.
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.