Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caio Lopes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Angel Stoyanov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Beroe asked and Lokomotiv Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lovro Bizjak. 1‑0 against Montana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Caio Lopes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Beroe will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beroe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. João Forelle is living that version at Beroe, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deal with Ludogorets is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Beroe asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Caio Lopes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.63 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Ferrer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Tomás Prost and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Angel Stoyanov, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Caio Lopes's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7.67, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Beroe had all but put away. Ludogorets will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Angel Stoyanov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Beroe will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ismael Ferrer falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Angel Stoyanov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Beroe will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Beroe can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Ferrer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“I watch every Beroe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Septemvri runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Angel Stoyanov to a room that had heard them before.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Angel Stoyanov could afford to be generous.
Yesid Valbuena and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Caio Lopes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Emir Kuhinja is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I watch every Beroe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Septemvri runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Angel Stoyanov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Montana defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Beroe scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Juan Carlos Pineda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Ivanov. 1‑0 against Slavia Sofia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caio Lopes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Juan Carlos Pineda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismael Ferrer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The offer went to Slavia Sofia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.63 for the rest of it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beroe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $52.9K — a club that wants Vasil Kaymakanov enough to be asked twice.
Beroe asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$49.0K was the most the club would pay and CSKA Sofia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The name of Viktorio Valkov has come up in conversations Beroe were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Yesid Valbuena was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Caio Lopes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Beroe will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Beroe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Caio Lopes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.