Welcome back to my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series, where Shama Deadman is now well into his first season as manager of Győr.
If you’ve read Part 23, you’ll know that it hasn’t been the easiest of starts for Shama, who’s already sacked one of his goalkeepers and spent big on another. On the bright side, he’s unearthed a young diamond on the right wing, and Győr’s recent form has been much better.
It’s now November 2025. Can ETO keep up the momentum as they seek a return to Hungary’s top division… or will it be another winter of discontent for Shama?
NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2025
It had been a rocky start to my tenure at Győr, but things were looking brighter as we entered the final six fixtures before the winter break. We’d won four of our last five league fixtures to move into the top half, as well as progressing through the Magyar Kupa. Could we continue this good form?
Yes, we could, but it wasn’t straightforward. Mid-table rivals Békéscsaba held us off for 71 minutes, until captain Norbert Kundrák broke clear to finish from left-back Simão Rocha‘s free-kick. That began an incredible run of form from Simão.
We took the lead against Iváncsa after just two minutes, but in very similar circumstances. The winless table-proppers couldn’t deal with another deadly Rocha free-kick, which ended with winger Milan Tóth scoring his first goal in nearly three months. Vice-captain Cyril Nebo also got back on the scoresheet in the closing stages, with the striker having recently returned from a knee injury.
Budaörs didn’t learn from our previous opponents’ mistakes. Rocha caused yet more mayhem from a free-kick, only this one was headed in at the near post by 18-year-old defender Tibór Feher. That was the second of our three goals, with right-winger Bence Sós getting the first before Tóth completed an outstanding performance!
A 2nd-minute long-ranger from midfield destroyer József Windecker kept the momentum going against Dorog. Our second goal came about an hour later, as Sós received a deep free-kick from Rocha before driving a 25-yarder through a crowded penalty and into the net. A fifth straight shut-out win moved us up to 3rd place – just a couple of points off the promotion promotion.
Simão’s assist was his fourth in as many games – and his NINTH of the season already! In 26 games for Espinho last term, he didn’t get any assists at all, but there was clearly something about Hungary that was bringing the best out of our set-piece specialist!
Another foreigner who’d quickly taken to Hungarian football was our Bulgarian goalkeeper Svetoslav Vutsov, who’d now kept five clean sheets in a row, albeit he’d only needed to make nine saves in that time. I suspect you know what’s coming, right?
Yep. A hernia ruled Vutsov out of our final two games before Christmas.
That meant we went into a tricky away game against leaders Nyíregyháza with the erratic Péter Szappanos in goal. It went about as badly as you’d expect, as ‘Szpari’ scored the winning goal after just four minutes – a shot from just outside the area that Szappanos really should’ve got to.
Seriously, what is it about Peter? Does he just spend his days repeatedly banging his head against a wall?
You know… I think he actually does!
Incredibly, Szappanos recovered so quickly that he was cleared to play in our year-ending derby at home to Gyirmót. Even more remarkably, he kept a clean sheet… though to be fair, Gyirmót couldn’t get a single shot on target. We had 10, but only one found the net – this scraptacular effort from Sós!
Hey, it doesn’t matter how you found the net – just that you do! And after recording our 9th win in 11 league games, we finished the year sitting just three points off the top two. With a bit of luck, and maybe another quality signing, Győr would surely be serious promotion contenders… but had this mid-season break come at the wrong time?
JANUARY 2026
Hungary’s winter transfer window works differently from most of Europe. Instead of running throughout January, it didn’t open until the middle of the month, closing on 15 February. That meant I could take a little more time with planning my transfers, and turning an already good team into a promotion-challenging one.
Bearing that in mind, I didn’t make sign anyone in January, though I did get rid of a few reserve players who were never going to make the grade. We even managed to get £75,000 from Gyirmót for 20-year-old striker Márió Cseh, whose contract was expiring in June. That looked like good business…
…until you realised that the previous Győr manager spent waaaaay over the odds on him! Seriously, £425,000 for a mediocre striker who couldn’t even score for our second team?! No wonder Saša Vojnić Zelić got the sack! Anyway, what’s that loser up to now?
Oh dear. Soroksár finished 3rd last season, so to leave them in mid-table after just five months shows just how bad he is at his job! I suspect Saša will somehow keep falling upwards after his latest failure, like a Serbian Steve Bruce.
Meanwhile, we returned from our mid-season break with a mixed bag of friendly results. It took us 71 minutes to break through the Lipót defence before Sós continued where he’d left off. After that, our defence took a heavy battering from Czech First League side Sigma Olomouc, though we did get a couple of goals back.
And then we went to Öttevényi. After taking the lead inside three minutes, we utterly dominated our lower-league opponents, but somehow failed to score again until our opponents scored a late equaliser on the break. Only an 89th-minute strike from teenage winger János Géringer saved us from what would’ve been a humiliating draw.
Following such a dismal performance, we didn’t look at all ready for our Magyar Kupa Round 3 clash with Újpest. Despite that, we managed to shut the NB I giants out for 90 minutes, and Géringer even came close to heading in a shock winner.
After taking the game to extra-time, however, we ran out of steam. Újpest scored from a corner in the first minute after the restart, and a second goal late on put the tie to bed. We had fallen short of the board’s cup expectations, but we could still be very proud of how we’d played against a much stronger side.
FEBRUARY 2026
Our February got off to a disappointing start, as we lost at Tatabánya. A series of sloppy passes and defensive mistakes somehow went unpunished by our dominant hosts, and it looked like we would somehow escape with a draw until they finally scored two minutes from time.
Another limp attacking display left me wondering if we needed a new attacking midfield playmaker. I wasn’t at all impressed with Roland Hajdú, who had plenty of flair and creativity but wasn’t really athletic enough to make full use of it. I tried to get him out – either permanently or on loan – but he wasn’t having it.
I gave Hajdú one more chance to prove his worth – and boy did he take it, scoring twice from a couple of Géringer assists when we demolished Ajka 5-0! It was also a great day for Nebo, who began and ended the rout with a brace of his own. Young Serbian midfielder Nenad Radović was on target too with a trademark long-ranger, though he later tore a groin muscle and was ruled out for two months.
We then produced another dominant home performance, beating Szeged-GA 3-0. Géringer followed up his two assists a week earlier with a couple of goals – his first since October. The 18-year-old starlet was now our joint-leading scorer this season alongside Nebo, who got his 7th of the campaign with a delicate lob over the goalkeeper.
Meanwhile, we said farewell to midfielder Damir Sadiković, who was off to Dorog for £5,000. The 30-year-old Bosnian had been decent for us this season, but he never provided the same productivity as he had done in the previous campaign before I took over. His contract was also up in the summer, so it made sense to move him on and inject some fresh blood into the team.
That new blood came from Hungary Under-19s international Gábor Tamás, who’s a very brave holding midfielder with a professional attitude and plenty of natural fitness. After showing some promise in two seasons with Békéscsaba, Gábor signed pre-contract agreement with us in January – but a few weeks later, we paid his club £7,250 to bring the transfer forward.
Tamás would make his debut against Debrecen. In the days leading up to the match, we developed a bit of an injury crisis. Windecker sprained his ankle, Rocha hurt his hip, Sós twisted his knee, and winger Ervin Taha was ruled out with shin splints. Heck, if things had got any worse, I might’ve brought myself out of retirement!
Of course, the game itself was a catastrophe. After seven clean sheets in 11 games, Vutsov had a nightmare and conceded FOUR goals – the second of which was particularly painful for the Bulgarian. Centre-back Américo Ferreira looked very rusty on his first league start since November, and new boy Tamás came off with an ankle injury after 77 minutes.
If it was any comfort, Debrecen were already the league’s top scorers by a huge margin before this 4-0 rout, which lifted them back up to the top of the table. Meanwhile, some inconsistent results after the winter break left us seven points adrift of promotion. We had to find form again – quickly.
MARCH 2026
And so we did. Three wins in March… and very nearly a fourth!
Nebo had provided more of a scoring threat since being switched from a ‘Pressing Forward’ to an ‘Advanced Forward’ role in the middle of February. The Nigerian’s resurgence continued with a brace in a 3-0 away thrashing of Szolnok, returning the favour after they beat us 4-1 at home in August. Captain Kundrák set up one of Cyril’s goals, and he also got on the scoresheet himself.
That ended a run of three straight league defeats on the road. After curing our away-day blues, we enjoyed another resounding win at Sényő. Cyril’s 10th goal of the campaign kicked off a 4-1 rout, in which Géringer scored twice to further enhance his reputation.
Of course, Géringer hurt his hamstring late on and had to miss our next two home games. That’s Deadman’s law for you – my players aren’t allowed to stay fit and in form for very long.
After two comfortable wins over mid-table opponents, we put our promotion credentials to a much bigger test against leaders Budafok. This was a very close battle throughout, but when attacking midfielder Bálint Szabó powered in a long ball from playmaker Ivan Kalyuzhnyi, it looked like we’d snatched the win. And then Budafok’s captain equalised with a screamer in the 93rd minute.
Those two dropped points were perhaps on our mind when we struggled to beat third-from-bottom Siófok, with the scores goalless at half-time. But then the visitors lost focus early in the second half, and Szabó stole the ball before threading it through for Kundrák to score. The pair linked up again eight minutes from time, with Bálint blasting in Norbert’s cut-back in from the edge of the area.
We were now so in control that I even found time to give my old friend Liam Edwards his official Győr debut for the final eight minutes! And when Cyril won us a penalty in the closing stages, Liam even got the chance to complete a 3-0 win, which the 26-year-old Welsh midfielder did with a cool low finish!
10 points from our March fixtures means our promotion dream is very much alive as we head into the run-in. With nine games remaining, we are just four points behind both Debrecen and Budafok in the promotion places.
Also, in the Hungarian leagues, the first tie-breaker isn’t goal difference or head-to-head results. It’s games won – and nobody in the NB II has won more than us so far!
Whisper it, but there could yet be an end-of-season party at ETO Park!
Nine games to go. Can Shama finally secure the first promotion of his career and lead Győr back into the NB I? Please come back on Friday to catch the 2025/2026 season finale!
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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