It’s July 2027, and we’re about to enter the EIGHTH season of my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series! Where does the time fly?
Seven years of blood, sweat and glorious failure have finally paid off for Shama Deadman. In Part 29, he successfully led Győr to promotion from the NB II. They will now play in the NB I – the top level of Hungarian football – for only the second time since 2015.
Today’s chapter is the 2027/2028 season preview, as Shama rebuilds his squad for tougher challenges against Hungary’s elite teams, such as Ferencváros, Honvéd and MTK. The manager has brought in several new faces, including an England international!
BACKROOM STAFF
A lot has changed at Győr since we secured promotion in the spring. Our training facilities have been upgraded (from Below Average to Adequate), and our backroom has also undergone a bit of a rebuild.
Firstly, Ferenc Fodor isn’t my assistant manager anymore. He wasn’t a terrible coach by any means, but we now had a better choice for the role – someone whom I’d known for years.
After two seasons honing his coaching skills with Győr’s Under-19s, the time had come to promote my former Cambrian & Clydach skipper Ceri Morgan to the senior set-up. With his discipline and man-management skills, I trust ‘Captain’ Morgan to be my first mate for many years – and clubs – to come.
We also have a couple of new coaches, and a brand-new director of football. Géza Mészöly is a former Győr manager whose extensive knowledge of Hungarian football will be invaluable to us. He has also taken on a second job to be an extra scout.
Meanwhile, Morgan was replaced as an Under-19s coach by another Cambrian old boy. Former defender Jarrad Wright had ended his playing days at Cymru South side Taffs Well, even serving as their caretaker manager for a short while.
Jarrad now starts his full-time coaching career working alongside our Under-19s manager Lewis Ellis, which means we now have THREE Cam Army alumni at Győr. Actually, make that FOUR, because Leighanne Kelly joined our medical department last year. We’re starting to build a little Welsh community in this corner of northern Hungary!
TRANSFER WINDOW
And now for the fun part! I was given a healthy £2.5million transfer kitty to play around with, and the board also expanded our recruitment network so that we can now scout anywhere in Europe. But before we meet all our new arrivals, let’s say a final farewell to those who are leaving us…
We already knew that goalkeeper Svetoslav Vutsov (not listed) and winger Bálint Szabó were moving to pastures new, but they weren’t the only familiar faces to depart. Injury-prone winger Ervin Taha and midfielder Nenad Radović were released, while right-back Attila Osváth left after a single season to play in the Czech second division.
Tibor Fehér was sold to Gyirmót for £5,000, plus 25% of his next transfer fee. Honestly, the 19-year-old defender hadn’t impressed me when given first-team opportunities, so I was happy to move him on. I was also very happy to get £50,000 from Szeged-GA for Olivér Sipos, who was a mediocre reserve midfielder.
Club stalwart József Windecker made 142 appearances across two spells at Győr, and he will go down as one of the club’s greatest servants of recent years. Sadly, the ball-winning midfielder was now 34 and couldn’t hold down a first-team place anymore. He dropped back down to the NB II with newly-promoted Iváncsa, who also took our promising teenage centre-back Dávid Kiss on loan.
Montenegrin target man Goran Todorović‘s loan spell came to an end… but our other loanee from last season was not going anywhere! I was ecstatic when Honvéd agreed to extend Norbert László‘s loan deal for another year. The 18-year-old winger made 22 goal contributions in our promotion campaign, and now he’s sticking around for our crack at the top flight!
I wish I could say the rest of the transfer window went smoothly, but… er… it didn’t. We’ve only made five signings so far, and we’ve missed out on so many more!
Our first new signings were a couple of former ZTE team-mates. Patrik Demjén is a 29-year-old goalkeeper with plenty of top-flight experience, while centre-back Balázs Hirman comes in as our new captain aged just 21. Having suffered back-to-back relegations from the NB I with ZTE and Budafok, though, Hirman will be hoping he doesn’t make it a hat-trick.
They were soon joined at ETO Park by versatile Bosnian winger Nemanja Jović, and a former England youth international in Louie Barry. The 24-year-old striker had a promising career at Aston Villa ruined by mismanagement, and after a season in League One with Plymouth, he’s now making a fresh start in Hungary.
And then it all went wrong… and it was all because of…
You see, Debrecen weren’t just satisfied with beating us 4-0 in back-to-back seasons, or taking the NB II title away from us. Ohhhh no! They ALSO had to snatch TWO of my top targets from right under my nose!
One of those steals really annoyed me. We’d taken an exciting young Russian playmaker called Vladimir Djachenko on trial after his release by Spartak Moscow. He set up a couple of goals in pre-season, and we had a four-year, £3,000-per-week contract ready for him to sign… until that thieving swine Tamás Sándor swooped in at the 11th hour and took Vlad to Debrecen!
I now had to switch to my Plan B, and loaned in Senegalese midfielder Marcelo Kanté from Romanian side CFR Cluj. I mean… Kanté is a pretty talented young playmaker himself, but he probably doesn’t look as impressive as Djachenko. [Sigh] I HATE DEBRECEN!!
A load more deals fell through in July, which means that we head into our first league game with the big rebuild still not complete. Right now, I am desperately trying to sign another goalkeeper, a backup right-back, and a strong holding midfielder. And maybe another centre-half too.
SQUAD REPORT
So, here’s how the Győr squad looks right now. Those star ratings probably won’t inspire much confidence, but once those last few players arrive, we should have a team capable of survival. In the meantime, let’s have another look at those who are already here:
Our new number 1 Demjén was capped once by Hungary in 2021 and played in nearly 150 top-flight matches for ZTE. Patrik is steady and has good reflexes, but I have doubts about his handling and concentration, so I’m still looking for another goalkeeper to give him competition. Béla Fejér is still here as a reserve, but he probably won’t see much first-team football this season, if at all.
Alex Szabó and Américo Pereira have been our regular centre-back partnership for three years now, but times are changing. Though Attila Mocsi had a few hairy moments last term, his pace and composure has seen him usurp Szabó as our starting covering defender.
Pereira’s starting place will also come under pressure after the arrival of our new skipper Hirman. This confident, no-nonsense centre-half has been playing NB I football since he was still at school and is surely destined to become a senior Magyar international. He’s also a fantastic leader, though I understand the risks of giving the captaincy to a so-called ‘mercenary’.
For the time being, I’m keeping faith in the full-backs who took us up from the NB II. Simão Rocha has provided loads of assists over the past two years, and his technique and athleticism should continue to serve him well in the big league. Barnabás Nagy has been overshadowed by his Portuguese left-back rival, but is happy to serve as a reliable understudy for another season.
Pacey right-back Attila Szabados is one of our longest-serving players, though he was on loan at Békéscsaba when Győr last played in the top tier in 2022/2023. He has since become an increasingly effective presence at both ends of the pitch and is determined to give his all. That said, I’m still looking for an experienced backup, just in case Szabados can’t handle the step up.
This is probably a make-or-break season for holding midfielder Gábor Tamás. The 21-year-old is tactically very astute and has a resolute personality, but his technical ability has let him down too often. If that doesn’t improve, it might be time to look elsewhere.
Though Lars Dendoncker is perhaps best-suited to a playmaker role, the Belgian’s job in this team is to close down opponents, win the ball, and then drive us forward. He is backed up by Karlo Muhar, though the aggressive Croatian had an underwhelming first half-season with us and might not be up to NB I standard.
This season, I’ll be experimenting with using an advanced playmaker in a 4-3-3. Our new loanee Kanté has a beautiful first touch and is a selfless creator whose abilities should suit that role well. Promising teenagers Norbert Földi and Gábor Novák may also be given chances to show they can take up that position in the long-term.
László’s technical skills were absolutely vital in our promotion season, so it’s a massive boost that he’s staying around for a second season. Norbert should hopefully pick up where he left off once he’s recovered from a hamstring tear sustained in our final pre-season friendly. In the meantime, cover will be provided by new boy Jović, who is comfortable with either foot and can cut inside from either wing.
Our main man on the right should once again be János Géringer, who’s scored 20 goals in the last two seasons and is still not out of his teens. A combination of pace, flair and technique have made the tall winger a fan favourite, but János mustn’t get complacent. We have a few promising wide forwards coming through the ranks, and 18-year-old Aleksandar Beljin is perhaps the closest to a major breakthrough.
Despite firing us to promotion with 23 goals last season, Cyril Nebo‘s regular place at the heart of our attack is no longer guaranteed. The popular Nigerian’s work ethic and athleticism may only get him so far against tougher opponents. That’s partly why I’ve signed Barry, who is quicker, a more natural finisher, and who wants to prove a point after a very exciting career went off the rails.
Norbert Kundrák may have been demoted to vice-captain, but the experienced forward should still play a prominent role in this team – whether it’s as a false nine in a 4-4-2, or out on the left wing in a 4-3-3. Meanwhile, I hope to see more of 16-year-old prodigy Dániel Juhász, who scored five goals in a debut season heavily disrupted by injuries and other misfortune.
I will be using very similar tactics to the ones that got us promoted, with a few slight tweaks that will hopefully make us a bit more defensively solid. The goal is survival – and we simply won’t survive if we concede from 15% of our opponents’ shots like last season.
Though I mainly used the inverted 4-4-2 last term, I will probably favour the more conservative 4-3-3 this term. Deploying a brave defensive midfielder like Tamás to protect the centre-backs will be vital – especially against the bigger, more attacking teams in the NB I.
You might also have noticed that we’ll be playing with lower defensive and engagement lines. Our central defenders are pretty good aerially, but they’re not very quick and have often been exposed by through-balls to fast strikers. Dropping deeper should help with those situations, though on the flip side, we’ll need to be a little more wary of long shots and crosses.
Lastly, on the 4-3-3, I’ve switched our left-back’s role from a Full-Back (Attack) to a Wing-Back (Support). I’m still not entirely sure what the difference is between those roles, but the basic premise is that Rocha (or Nagy) won’t push forward quite so often, which would leave him better-placed to deal with opposition counter-attacks.
Now that I’ve explained my tactical changes, let’s see how we got on in pre-season…
PRE-SEASON
Well. When you’re adjusting to a new division, these are NOT the friendly results you want to take into the new season.
Pre-season got off to a decent enough start when we beat Soproni 2-0, but things started to go awry in our next game. Third-division Mosonmagyaróvár took the lead twice in the first half before Juhász scored a couple of equalisers, but we couldn’t turn our second-half dominance into a victory.
And then came a pathetic collapse at home to our former NB II rivals Gyirmót. We were 2-1 ahead with seven minutes to go when ex-Győr skipper Ivan Kalyuzhnyi headed in an equaliser (reminder: Kalyuzhnyi NEVER scored in the 18 months I worked with him!). Gyirmót then scored again just moments later to win 3-2 and take the city spoils.
That was followed by another defeat to second-tier opposition. We probably played even worse at Ajka, falling 2-0 behind before a stroke of luck gave Barry his first Győr goal.
To further underline just how poor we’d been, our final two friendlies yielded just THREE goals – all from Kundrák. In fact, if Norbert hadn’t flicked in a Dendoncker cross in the 89th minute, we would have been held to a 0-0 home draw by Kecskeméti, who were relegated from the NB II last season!
Naturally, after such a rotten summer, expectations for our first year in the NB I are very low. The board just want us to “fight bravely against relegation”, which basically means “don’t be like Derby County in 2007/2008”.
The 12 teams in the NB I play each other three times, which means an uneven number of home and away fixtures. We’ve drawn one of the short straws and will play 17 of our 33 games on the road (including two away games against champions Ferencváros). Oh, cripes.
The bookies fully expect us to fill one of those two relegation spots, pricing us as 600-1 rank outsiders for the title. Haladás are just ahead of us at 500-1, with Debrecen at 200-1. Unsurprisingly, Ferencváros are 1-10 odds-on favourites to win a record-equalling TENTH consecutive Hungarian league title.
Despite not getting past Round 3 of the Magyar Kupa in either of the previous two seasons, the board are once again expecting us to reach Round 4. Seeing as we struggled to even beat third-division teams in pre-season, I’m not getting my hopes up!
So, after a difficult pre-season, can Győr beat the odds and survive the NB I? Please tune in again next Monday for the start of Shama’s first season in Hungary’s top division!
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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