Marked for Aaron James
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market27 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets Burgas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Umut Habil 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Kacper Kotala, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Chernomorets Burgas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitar Kostadinov 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Elysée Sou gets it from the manager
“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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Yantra in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market27 Mar 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandar Georgiev signs something — a contract at Chernomorets Burgas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Nikola Zlatinov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Chernomorets Burgas 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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Elysée Sou runs his contract down
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Chernomorets Burgas money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Chernomorets Burgas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Ruca has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Chernomorets Burgas is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
No deal for Son at that price
Chernomorets Burgas offered $260.0K; Ludogorets said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Umut Habil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Chernomorets Burgas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitar Kostadinov 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 Feb 2028
Chernomorets Burgas asked and CSKA 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aaron James, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead14 Feb 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aleksandar Georgiev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Chernomorets Burgas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Dec 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Marek spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chernomorets Burgas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The step up is real for Aaron James
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitar Kostadinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Dec 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match6 Dec 2027
25 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
Zak Paulo Piplica 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets Burgas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market4 Oct 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Simeon Chatov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Chernomorets Burgas.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aaron James and Chernomorets Burgas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 May 2027
The division’s best young player: Zhulian Ivanov
A whole season of being the finest 21-year-old anybody in this league could put on a pitch. Chernomorets Burgas have him, and everybody else now knows it.
Market31 May 2027
Oktay Hamdiev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets Burgas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Chernomorets Burgas have had the benefit of it.
Squad31 May 2027
Oktay Hamdiev 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Antoni Pawlicki gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Antoni Pawlicki has just signed for Chernomorets Burgas, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
Market31 May 2027
He is 19, and nobody at Chernomorets Burgas signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout31 May 2027
Elysée Sou knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets Burgas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market31 May 2027
The Umut Habil talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chernomorets Burgas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.