Marked for Viktor Ergin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Marek
Petar Debarliev 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Marek
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitar Todorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivaylo Klimentov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages swallow 104% of the Marek income
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Marek know which stage they are at.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Ivan Avramov 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 Marek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market14 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Viktor Vasilev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout17 May 2027
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Radoslav Terziev 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.
Squad17 May 2027
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Viktor Ergin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitar Todorov, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Tempers go at Marek
Dilyan Georgiev 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.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Wages swallow 112% of the Marek income
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Marek may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Apr 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 Marek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Radoslav Terziev 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
54 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Dinev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
Wages eat 94% of everything Marek earn
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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksandar Aleksandrov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I want to play”: Denis Dinev speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market19 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Marek
Mariyan Ivanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Dilyan Georgiev 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
6 new faces, and Marek are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I want to play”: Ivan Avramov speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market12 Apr 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Marek's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Marek has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 20 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Marek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomislav 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
0‑2 to Pirin Blagoevgrad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Marek
Viktor Ergin 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
95% of the income goes out in wages at Marek
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Toni Ivanov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Toni Ivanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The deal with Vihren 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Marek
Petar Debarliev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Jan 2027
Belasitsa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yesid Valbuena, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Milko Nedelev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Marek training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilyan Georgiev 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 targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Preslav Bachev is in the works
Marek have made the call to Arda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marek are still strangers to each other
5 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
This league is too small for Yesid Valbuena
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. Marek will not keep him by pretending otherwise.