Marked for Ryan Tchato
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Oct 2030
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Petrolul Ploiești lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Ionuţ Cojocaru 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.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Looking ahead28 Oct 2030
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Petrolul Ploiești will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Appearance number 100 for Luka Lukanić
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.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.74 on the card, and the Petrolul Ploiești support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Borna Orlić, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Petrolul Ploiești is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul Ploiești this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 May 2030
A move Levente Katona would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Levente Katona is living that version at Petrolul Ploiești, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 May 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Screciu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 May 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ryan Tchato and Petrolul Ploiești agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout13 May 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market13 May 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 May 2030
Florin Borţa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 May 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Alexandru Hagi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Petrolul Ploiești is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul Ploiești this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 May 2030
Vladimir Screciu 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.
Market6 May 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Boardroom6 May 2030
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout6 May 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout6 May 2030
Ádin Molnár asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad6 May 2030
Jesús Vallejo has had enough of the bench
“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 Petrolul Ploiești will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jan 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Petrolul Ploiești have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Jan 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Petrolul Ploiești, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jan 2030
The bid was some way short and Petrolul Ploiești did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match12 Jan 2030
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Oleksandr Romanchuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Petrolul Ploiești training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Vallejo 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.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match12 Jan 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ryan Tchato. 2‑1 against Unirea Slobozia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jesús Vallejo
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul Ploiești lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Petrolul Ploiești
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 Oct 2029
Sidnei Tavares has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Petrolul Ploiești they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sidnei Tavares has agreed terms with Universitatea Craiova for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andres Dumitrescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florin Borţa, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Apr 2029
A 2‑1 win over FCSB, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market9 Apr 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Cătălin Tolea goes up and wins it — 7.61
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 7.61 for the rest of it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Ryan Tchato gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ryan Tchato has just signed for Petrolul Ploiești, and for once the answer mattered.
Market9 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for George Nevett
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. George Nevett will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Petrolul Ploiești the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match4 Apr 2029
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Simão Rocha in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul Ploiești this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Andres Dumitrescu 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.