Trebor Mahtal stretched his stunning record of consecutive titles to eight seasons by leading semi-professional Colwyn Bay to a surprise maiden success in Wales. And, as per usual, he resigned from his role in May 2054.
A few weeks out of work allowed the now 70-year-old to earn a bit more cash on pundit duties at the World Cup in France. He watched the joint biggest winning margin in competition history as Argentina thrashed Guatemala 10-0 and saw Australia and Uruguay knocked out by surprise packages Angola and Mali. He was also present for several second round games as he saw the USA thrash Argentina 6-2, Ireland win a wild game 6-4 after extra time against Ecuador, then South Africa knock out Portugal on penalties in the second round. He then witnessed a huge shock as Saudi Arabia beat USA on penalties the day before Cameroon did the same to Italy. Cameroon then reached the semis by beating Ireland 3-1 but were defeated 3-1 by England after Brazil beat Spain 3-2. And England beat Brazil 2-0 in the Final.
Two job interviews eventually popped up in two new countries: Croatia and Hungary. The Croatian side had worrying finances, so Mahtal decided his 21st job in management would be in Hungary.
Who Are Puskás Akadémia?
Puskás Akadémia Football Club is a professional club based in Felcsút, a village in the Féjer County just to southwest of Budapest in central Hungary. The club was first founded in 2005 as an academy for Fehérvár FC and as a memorial to the country’s greatest-ever player Ferenc Puskás.
However, the academy has overtaken Fehérvár in this save, as the later has been down in the second tier on several occasions. Neither has come close to winning the Hungarian title as Ferencváros remain largely dominant. Ferencváros has stretched its title tally to 62 after winning all but three of the 31 titles during this save -all of which were won by Újpest, including last season.
Puskás Akadémia is in a decent place financially with £6.3m in the bank, a transfer budget of £2.2m and a wage budget of £123k, of which only £16k is spare. It plays at the funky-looking 5,939-capacity Pancho Aréna, which was built in 2014 and is supported by pretty average infrastructure of 17 youth recruitment, 14 junior coahcing, 10 youth facilities and 9 training facilities.
Mahtal did his usual trick of selling old rubbish players for £1.4m and £65k off the wage budget. The best player remaining was Nigerian winger Augustine Adeyinka along with holding midfielder Rasmus Jacobsen, 19-year-old winger Péter Takács, loanee Patrick Salamba and his centre back partner Marius Epure, full back Balázs Balogh and goalkeeper John Tanjon. He also had several youth prospects in full backs Ilie Trif, Tamás Farkas and János Szalay and midfielders János Szucs and Balázs Kovács. Mahtal also added holding midfielder Matías Laluz for £80k from San Lorenzo, which pushed him towards a 4-2-3-1 approach.
Getting Started In Hungary
Puskás Akadémia are fourth favourites to win the 12-team Hungarian Division I with title odds of 33/1 behind Ferencváros (8/15), holder Újpest (3/1) and MTK (20/1). Puskás got the Hungarian season started with the Friday night fixture at Honvéd on 24 July. They began brightly as debutant Fehér laid on the opener for midfielder Courtney Nesbitt-Matrthew, also on loan from affiliate side Everton, but caved in after the break and lost 3-1. Mahtal’s first home game was a big one as they took on Fehérvár. They absolutely battered their visitors by 19 shots to 5 but obviously conceded the first one and lost 1-0.
Going back to last season, that saw Puskás break the club record for most consecutive defeats (6) and tie the record for the longest winless run (10). They worryingly broke the latter as well with a really poor 2-1 defeat at Kazincbarcika then at least got a point on the board as Féher’s first goal for the club earned a 1-1 at home to DEAC. Mahtal tweaked his tactic slightly to go more direct, which finally earned three points as striker Juan Cruz Ruiz’s late goal nicked a 1-0 at Gyor to end a 12-game winless streak.
They dropped back into defeats with a disappointing 1-0 loss at home to MTK before getting thumped 3-0 at Ferencváros then 3-1 at home to Újpest. That left Puskás stranded in the relegation zone, 5 points from safety with just 4 points from 8 games. A crunch game saw them entertain 10th-place Szeged and start well as Takács finally scored his first goal for the club and swiftly added his second. Szeged got a goal back and had the best of the second half until a red card killed the game off.
Mahtal was hoping they’d gain some confidence from that victory. However, they lost 1-0 at 8th-place Kazincbarcika then only drew 0-0 at home to bottom-side Diósgyor. And that had him really worried. But a penalties success in the cup at Honvéd did give the lads a lift, as they went to Fehérvár and won 2-0 through Ruiz and Epure to clamber out of the relegation zone. But they threw the momentum away by losing 1-0 at home to Honvéd.
They finally delivered a convincing performance as Jacobsen scored one and made two for Adeyinka to thrash Kazincbarcika 4-0. But a 2-0 defeat at DEAC, who climbed to 2nd as a result, saw Mahtal called into the dreaded “board meeting to discuss confidence.” Chairperson Benca Kasza wanted to know why they lost the game and was happy with Mahtal’s excuse that “DEAC put in a much better performance on the day.” A few days later, Kasza called his manager back into the boardroom specifically to discuss the performances of Trif, who hadn’t even played in the last four games, and agreed to retain Mahtal if Trif didn’t play. He then had team leaders on his back demanding what he was planning to do to resolve their poor position – which he felt was probably their responsibility.
A slightly better performance followed as Ruiz’s penalty nicked a 1-0 win at home to Gyor, only to lose 1-0 at managerless MTK in the final game of 2054. That left Puskás Akadéma sitting 9th on 17 points after 17 games, only 2 points above the dropzone and 9 points behind the European places.
Major Board-Level Activity
The winter break saw Puskás Akadémia enter the process of a board takeover for the second time in three months. The first had been a supposed tycoon and fell through immediately, but this one went on for weeks and Mahtal was expecting the same this time. However, on 23 January 2055, Máté Tóth completed a £17.25m takeover and immediately floated the club on the stock exchange, raising £3.8m in the process, and gave Mahtal a £6.75m transfer kitty. However, he still wanted Mahtal to achieve a top-half finish.
The new era began by hosting Ferencvaros and snagging a solid point through Adeyinka’s second-half equaliser. But there was a familiar feeling as they slipped to a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Újpest. Just what they didn’t need now was an injury crisis and so, of course, they got one, as three defenders were ruled out for a month. However, they snuck a vital 2-1 victory at Szeged thanks to striker László Németh’s late winner and the same result followed at home to surprise 2nd-placed side Tiszakécske.
A poor defeat in the Hungarian Cup didn’t help Mahtal’s standing with the new chairperson. But a shocking 3-1 defeat at bottom-side Diósygor, who’d only won twice before that, did even less and Tóth wasted no time inviting him into the boardroom, which he survived again. That made a home clash with Fehérvár an absolute must-win and they seemed up for it by donating the first half with 11 shots to two. But they somehow conceded to the visitors’ only real attack and lost 1-0.
It got even worse with another 1-0 defeat at Honvéd, who nicked it in the 89th minute, which prompted yet another meeting. And this time there was no coming back. Trebor Mahtal was sacked as Manager of Puskás Akadémia.
So Mahtal, for the first time in his 32-year career, found himself back on the job market through no choice of his own. But would he quickly land another job or have to play the waiting game? Join us on Friday to find out!
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