Attila Balogh gives his assessment of the winter transfer period

Kenan Kodro, Dániel Kovács, Deybi Flores, Levente Szabó, Lirim Kastrati and Frank Bambock have left, while Mario Simut, Patrik Kovács, Dániel Veszelinov, Nicolas Stefanelli, Dávid Sigér and Nejc Gradisar have arrived in the winter transfer window of Fehérvár FC, which closed at midnight on Wednesday. We sat down with Vidi's managing director Attila Balogh to talk about the busy weeks behind us.

If we go in chronological order, let's talk about the departures first: the transfer of Kenan Kodro and Deybi Flores were a disappointment for many Vidi fans, what led to the departure of the two regular players at the beginning of January?
In the case of Kenan Kodro, Ferencváros paid the buy-out price of the striker's contract, which expires in the summer, and then reached an agreement with the player, who had indicated that he would like to continue his career there. Kenan has scored many goals in a Vidi shirt and we owe him a debt of gratitude, but he has his sights set elsewhere, in footballing terms. It took Deybi Flores some time after his arrival in January to become a really important member of the team, but he has been performing well in the late autumn and with the national team, and has caught the eye of Toronto FC of Canada, who are in the MLS. Deybi has played in the American league before, and he has been able to move closer to his homeland and family, and he has also been given a fair deal with the move. His contract was due to expire at the end of next December, and we have no intention of letting our assets go for free in the future - if someone wants to leave, the new club should pay the price. In these two cases that has happened. The case of Dániel Kovács is different in that he left for free, but the club had a different vision for the future in terms of goalkeeper and he understandably wanted to play as much as possible. Here, both parties took the other's interests into account, so a contract termination was quickly agreed and the keeper is now in Greece.

First, young players arrived, not necessarily to replace the departing ones. What was the motivation behind the signings of Mario Simut, Patrik Kovács and Dániel Veszelinov?
In the background, of course, there were already negotiations about the arrival of more experienced players, and there were some transfers even before the start of the spring season that fell through at the last minute. I don't want to name names, because that's not the point here, but it's probably better that in the end 100% of the players who came here were motivated and really wanted to be part of a successful team in Fehérvár. Among the youngsters, Mario Simut came with a serious NB II background, he also played for the U21 national team, and we managed to get him without paying a transfer fee. With regards to Dániel Veszelinov when we signed him, we wanted to increase the competition in the goalkeeper position and after the departure of Dániel Kovács we were looking for a young, but more experienced Hungarian goalkeeper - and we found him in Veszelinov, who was also a former youth national team player. Patrik Kovács is only 16 years old and is now the youngest player in the history of Vidi's NB I past, and his signing is clearly seen as an investment for the future. But let's not forget the youngsters from Fehérvár, as Tamás Tóth Vid has already scored a goal in the NB I, but we have also seen Marcell Berki and Milan Pető on the pitch, and Zsombor Menyhárt is also part of the squad. In addition, Martin Dala has become the starting goalkeeper for Nyíregyháza, who are also aiming for promotion, but Bence Babos has also scored in the NB II as a loanee for Ajka, and Bence Kovács will be gaining experience in the adult team at our cooperation partner Siófok in the spring.

However, towards the end of the transfer period, we brought in experienced players who admittedly arrived, but not in time to play against Zalaegerszeg, but have already helped us to six points in our most recent two games against Kisvárda and MTK.
We are happy that Stefanelli, Sigér and Gradisar also made a successful debut in a Vidi shirt. They didn't have many training sessions together before the game in Kisvárda, but it shows that they arrived in good shape and motivated, they didn't need weeks to get on the pitch and give a quality performance. I said earlier that we were looking for more experienced players in the attacking line and also in midfield, of course in an ideal world all three players would have been available against ZTE and George Dobson would have been in the squad (the Englishman will join Vidi from the 1st July), but we still feel the winter transfer window is complete as Stefanelli arrived on a free transfer, our head coach has worked with him before, and we have found him to be a very positive personality during the talks, the versatile forward could be a long-term strength for the team. I don't think we should introduce Dávid Sigér to anyone, after he terminated his contract, we could sign him for free, while we could feel that he wants to play football in Vidi, thank you for the positive reception from our fans, he has already shown in Kisvárda that he can be counted on. Then tere is Nejc Gradisar who is one of the top strikers of Slovenian football, already a national team player at the age of 21, he has picked up impressive statistics in the Slovenian top flight this autumn, I hope that he will continue in the spring where he left off in Kisvárda and will help the team with important goals.

The notorious "deadline day" in Sósto was also an exciting one for the departures, with Lirim Kastrati and Levente Szabó continuing their careers elsewhere on loan. What happened in the last few days?
After discussions with the coaching staff, we have come to the conclusion that Lirim Kastrati is a quality winger, but his strengths are not really evident in our current playing system. He will spend the spring on loan at Lokomotiva Zagreb, his boyhood club, as he played there for four years as a youngster and has also performed very well in the Croatian league. Levente Szabó's contract expires in the summer and we have not been able to agree on a continuation. I regret this, but in the first three games of spring, we could see that we have more experienced and younger strikers who have committed themselves to Vidi for the long term, so we decided to build them up with the available playing time - with an eye on the team's performance..

So the transfer window is over, the team has six points from three away games. What do you expect from the first home game of the spring season against DVSC?
Overall, I think we have made good progress in the period behind us, I hope that this will be reflected in the results in the future, and of course we would like to see more fans coming to the Sósto to cheer the team live, because besides the score, their presence and encouragement is also a good confirmation that things are going in the right direction..