My Football Manager 2021 journeyman series is now into its seventh season. Will it be lucky 7 for Shama Deadman as he seeks his first major success as a manager?
In Part 25, Shama completed his first season with Győr, who finished just six points off the promotion places in Hungary’s second division. He has now given himself two more years to finish the job, and return this once-great club to the top flight.
Today’s post is the 2026/2027 season preview, where we go through Győr’s summer transfers and see how the squad now looks as ETO head into the new NB II campaign. Is this their time to shine?
2026 WORLD CUP
Before I bring you up to speed with events at Győr, I want to write a little bit about this year’s World Cup, which was quite different from the last one. After Qatar 2022 was held in the winter, the tournament returned to its regular summer slot and was co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The competition had also expanded to 48 teams, which meant a lot more competition, and far fewer blow-outs…
…or perhaps not.
With 32 teams making it into the knockout rounds, there were no major shocks in the Group Stage – except perhaps for Scotland qualifying from their group for the very first time. In fact, the Tartan Army went on to beat Brazil (yes, BRAZIL) on penalties in Round 3 before suffering a heartbreaking extra-time defeat to Croatia in the Quarter Finals.
Rafa Benítez’s Team USA went the furthest of the host nations, knocking out Argentina in Round 2 before they ran into Erling Haaland. Norway’s historic run to the Quarter Finals was stopped by Euro 2024 champions England, who then suffered the same fate as their neighbours and lost to Croatia in extra-time at the Semis.
Real Madrid megastar Kylian Mbappé was the top scorer, hitting 10 goals as France advanced to the Semi Finals, where they fell to holders Germany. A 77th-minute strike by Chelsea’s Florian Wirtz fired ‘Die Mannschaft’ into a record 10th World Cup Final, where they sought an unprecedented sixth championship.
The Final at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl wasn’t even close. Croatia were quickly overwhelmed, conceding twice in the first 15 minutes to wonderkid Youssoufa Moukoko, whom Real Madrid had just signed for £93million from RB Leipzig. But even Moukoko was upstaged by Germany’s other 21-year-old striking sensation – Janis Boese of Borussia Dortmund, who became the first man since Geoff Hurst in 1966 to score a World Cup Final hat-trick!
Croatia 0, Germany 5. What a team. What a tournament!
Anyway, back to the story…
TRANSFER WINDOW
The first player to leave Győr this summer was backup goalkeeper Péter Szappanos, who hung up his teflon gloves aged 35 and is apparently joining the local circus. He probably heard that they needed a clown.
We also said goodbye to right-winger Bence Sós, whom I was quite happy to keep as a backup… until his agent insisted on a three-year contract extension (he’s 32, for heaven’s sake). Soma Lekli played 12 games up front last season and failed to score, so he’s joining newly-relegated Siofók in the third tier.
And I’ve once again said goodbye to Liam Edwards, probably for the final time. The Welsh attacker leaves Győr with an impressive first-team record of 1 game, 1 goal (yes, it was only a 10-minute cameo, and yes, it was only a penalty, but it still counts). Liam wasn’t a free agent for long and signed for part-time Bicske, where he’ll hopefully get to play regularly again.
He’s not on this list, because the transfer technically happened last season, but we’ve sold Roland Hajdú. The creative but lethargic attacking midfielder didn’t want to leave us, so he took some persuading before he eventually joined Neftekhimik in Russia for £10,000. That’s probably too low a fee for a player of Roland’s abilities, but he wasn’t in my plans anymore and I just wanted him out.
Reserve midfielder Balázs Katona went to our NB II rivals Szolnok for £9,750, despite never breaking into our first-team. We’ve also loaned out four young players to give them extra senior experience.
In terms of arrivals, my first task this summer was to add some depth to our defence. Centre-half Attila Mocsi and right-back Attila Osváth have played nearly 450 league matches between them, while Romanian-born goalkeeper Béla Fejér joins us after five years at Honvéd.
I got all those deals done early, as well as signing 19-year-old attacking midfielder Norbert Földi from Debrecen. He’ll initially play for our reserves, with a view to being promoted to the senior squad at some point next year.
Another youngster with a bright future is 15-year-old striker Dániel Juhász, who broke into Iváncsa’s first-team just before their relegation and joins us for an initial £20,000. He has a resilient personality, is very quick, and is a gifted finisher, so I’m very excited about what he could become.
Juhász might not be quite ready for regular league action just yet, but Goran Todorović certainly is. The tenacious Montenegrin target forward joins us on loan from Mladost Lučani, having scored 11 goals in the NB II during a previous loan stint with Nyíregyháza last season.
Lastly, I spent a good few weeks scouring for a left inverted-winger. I originally struck a deal to take one of Honvéd’s reserve players on loan. That was when I discovered that they had a 17-year-old Hungarian Under-21s international in their first-team who looked even better – and was “very interested” in joining us.
At first, Honvéd were reluctant to lend us Norbert László for the season, but they eventually agreed to the deal after we offered to pay his wages in full. I was absolutely thrilled to have him for the year… and once you’ve seen how he compares to the player I was planning to sign, you’d probably understand why!
Yeah, that 8 Work Rate is a concern, but he’s sooooo much better physically and technically than that other guy, so I’ll take it!
SQUAD REPORT
With six new faces in the senior squad, this is how we are shaping up ahead of the new season. Once again, I’ll (re)introduce you to the players and post up some profiles along the way.
This is Svetoslav Vutsov‘s first full season as our number 1, and the Bulgarian will be looking to build on a promising start to his Győr career. If Vutsov does lose his way, we at least have a very competent backup in Fejér, whose career highlight was winning the World Cup in 2018 – that’s the CONIFA World Football Club, with Kárpátalja.
Simão Rocha was voted the NB II’s Player of the Year last season after providing 13 assists from left-back, and I’m expecting another big campaign from the Portuguese star. Though Barnabás Nagy doesn’t have quite as much technical ability as Rocha, he is still a pretty nifty left-back in his own right.
Youth product Attila Szabados has been a regular starter at right-back for three years now, and is noted for his athleticism and consistency. While we often struggled in that position when Attila was absent last season, he now has a reliable backup in namesake Osváth, who has bags of experience and is a very good crosser.
Our star centre-half in recent years has been 23-year-old Américo Pereira, who is a strong aerial presence but hasn’t really developed much over the past 12 months. Pereira was often partnered by Alex Szabó last season, and the dependable duo are now joined by Mocsi, whose composure and anticipation makes him a fine covering defender.
Next in the pecking order are a couple of promising youngsters in Tibor Fehér (18) and Dávid Kiss (17). Fehér in particular should continue to get his fair share of gametime this season, but I’ve tried to send Kiss out on loan without success.
Gábor Tamas is a brave and tactically astute young holding midfielder whose professionalism could take him quite far. I’ve identified Gábor as a future captain, and a potential long-term replacement for our former skipper Ivan Kalyuzhnyi, whose recent form has been a cause for concern.
The anchor will usually be accompanied by an out-and-out ball-winner. The versatile Belgian Lars Dendoncker is capable of playing in either role and is like to be our most regular starter in midfield. Veteran destroyer József Windecker is coming towards the end of his career, while the hard-working Serb Nenad Radović is looking to kickstart his.
Teenage loanee László adds some sparkle to our left wing, but Ervin Taha is another fine option to play there. The French speedster got five goals and four assists last season, and he’s determined to prove his worth in the final year of his current deal. 15-year-old Róbert Nagy put in some encouraging displays over pre-season and may also get some league opportunities.
Right-winger János Géringer was our breakout star of last season, scoring 10 goals and often lighting up ETO Park with his flair and technique. He needs time to get back up to speed after missing most of pre-season through injury, so Bálint Szabó will cover in the meantime. Like Taha, this enigmatic attacker is effectively playing for a new contract to extend his four-year stay.
Nigerian vice-skipper Cyril Nebo is a man in form, having scored 15 goals in his last 16 games at the back end of the 2025/2026 season. He forms a prolific strike partnership with captain Norbert Kundrák, who helps draw defenders away as a ‘false nine’, thus freeing up space for Cyril to exploit.
Our third-choice frontman is loanee Todorović, who’s a calm lad off the pitch but turns into a terrifying pitbull of a pressing forward once he crosses the touchline. Schoolboy starlet Juhász is next in line, while 16-year-olds Kálmán Hegyi and Szilárd Gyürü are a couple of striking prospects who have come through our academy.
While we had some success with a 4-2-3-1 last season, I’ve made some significant changes ahead of the new season. It is basically now an inverted 4-4-2 (or a 4-2-4, depending on your point of view).
Our attacking midfielder is now as a false nine, whose job is to give central defenders headaches. Either he can lure them out of position (thus freeing up space for our advanced forward and/or our wingers), or if they stand off him, he can have time to play a killer ball.
Our left-winger has dropped a little deeper, which should give us some more defensive solidity, especially when our left-back is pressing forward. I have plenty of faith in László’s ability to supply deep crosses from that flank, while our right-winger (whether it be Géringer or Bálint Szabó) will be expected to attack the defence more.
As a more cautious alternative tactic, I’ve returned to the 4-3-3, despite having problems with it before. This system is more focussed on keeping things tight at the back (which is where the extra midfielder in that anchor position comes in handy), and then countering with pace. I just hope that the advanced playmaker is the right role to provide adequate service for our front three.
PRE-SEASON
I know you shouldn’t ever read too much into pre-season results… but just look at all those green circles and all those big scorelines! We were pretty much on fire from start to finish!
After a couple of straightforward wins against lower-league opposition, we faced our first serious test against Puskás Akadémia. They’ve been a mid-table NB I team for several years now, but we still managed to give them a proper game. The visitors even missed a penalty in the 71st minute before finally getting the winner from a corner in the 79th.
And then the fun really began, as we smashed TEN goals past third-division Veszprém. Bálint Szabó completed a hat-trick inside the first half-hour, and Todorovic also netted three, while even Juhász got a couple of goals! I was a little annoyed that Veszprém managed to score from their only attack, but that’s basically a first-world problem…
A few days later, 14-time league champions Honvéd came to ETO Park – where we gave them an almighty surprise. Though Alex Szabó’s 2nd-minute opener was cancelled out late in the first half, we instantly hit back with a couple more goals on the stroke of half-time. The Lions had no answer to our relentless counter-attack as we secured a 3-1 win – my first ever victory in any match against a top-division team!
Another heavy away win (against feeder club Soproni) completed a prolific pre-season campaign, in which we scored 26 goals and conceded only 3 goals in six games. Over the same number of friendlies last season, we scored 13 and let in 6 – so in that sense, we’re twice as better as we were 12 months ago! Now can we deliver when it really matters?
Our targets are basically the same as they were last year. Another top-four finish in the NB II is the minimum expectation, and the media seem to agree, pricing us at 5-1 fourth-favourites to go up. Only title favourites Debrecen and newly-relegated ZTE and Vasas have been given shorter odds.
Though our media prediction has dropped from 3rd to 4th compared to last year, I actually think we’re much closer to the top teams than we were 12 months ago. Vutsov, Rocha and László are all rated as decent NB I players, and Szabados has been named as the right-back in the NB II’s media dream XI. We now have quality pretty much across the whole pitch, rather than in only a few areas.
We fell at Round 3 of the Magyar Kupa last term, but the board are again looking for us to go one round further. As I explained last time, the open nature of this competition – where EVERYONE enters at Round 1 – basically puts us at the mercy of the draw gods.
And there’s our look ahead to the new season! Do Győr look ready for promotion, or will it be another season of disappointment for Shama?
The season will officially kick off with Part 27, which I will be releasing next Monday. I have now almost caught up with my progress in-game, so I want to take some more time to finish writing the next few chapters instead of rushing out anything. I hope you understand the short delay.
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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