“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CSM Slatina know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Lupu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrei Ivan. 1‑0 against Voluntari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 7.86 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, CSM Slatina had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Ovidiu Cicaldau, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
Looking aheadCSM Slatina take on the side everybody is chasing
Óscar Siafá 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Lupu 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.
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 dugout4 Oct 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ovidiu Cicaldau to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Antonio Panin
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Antonio Panin has come out of that comparison in the side, and CSM Slatina have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Barnabás Menyhárt is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Berni Kassy Ghoy. 3‑1 against Metalul Buzău, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathis Hamdi 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Berni Kassy Ghoy had CSM Slatina level again within 4 minutes, and Metalul Buzău never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 108% of everything CSM Slatina earn
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a CSM Slatina man
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSM Slatina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
David Matei 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.
Gloria Bistrița left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mathis Hamdi 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSM Slatina told David Matei something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 Mar 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 Ovidiu Cicaldau left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Matei did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
David Matei 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Ivan 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.
ASA Târgu Mureș made CSM Slatina work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Idrissa Dioh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at CSM Slatina who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Concordia Chiajna will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSM Slatina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Ivan 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.
Dokou Dodo 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Ovidiu Cicaldau could afford to be generous.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSM Slatina told Raman Chibsah something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
CSM Slatina and FC Bihor Oradea have settled on $550.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSM Slatina can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $16.7K — a club that wants Răzvan Călugăr enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Slatina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Andrei Ivan was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $2.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Slatina 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 Szilárd Magyari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.92, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and CSM Slatina 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ovidiu Cicaldau could afford to be generous.