The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UTA Arad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UTA Arad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Mahmoud Akim Soumahoro is 20, and UTA Arad have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Nobody at UTA Arad 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UTA Arad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UTA Arad can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UTA Arad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UTA Arad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Braiden Graham. 3‑1 against Sepsi OSK, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Manolache was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” UTA Arad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Robert Popa 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.
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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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 0‑3 George Moldovan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UTA Arad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. UTA Arad will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at UTA Arad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Manolache 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Zétény Jánó was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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 goal that put Metaloglobus Bucharest ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when UTA Arad equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“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 UTA Arad, and it is not being withdrawn.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $703.4K of what UTA Arad paid for George Ganea is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at UTA Arad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
UTA Arad offered $22.0K; CSC Dumbrăvița 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zétény Jánó has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Hakim Abdallah 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olimpija Ljubljana have kept their man, and UTA Arad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. UTA Arad will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Marcel Lorber 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 Jul 2028
9 new faces, and UTA Arad 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” George Ganea has his answer from UTA Arad; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at UTA Arad, another week without a signature from Ime Ndon.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UTA Arad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $25.0K — a club that wants Leon Zeqiraj enough to be asked twice.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kalifa Kujabi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
UTA Arad offered $90.0K; Rapid Bucharest 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.
The phone has started ringing about Denis Lungu-Bocean again, and this time the name on the line is CSC Dumbrăvița. UTA Arad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Marcel Lorber 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at UTA Arad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UTA Arad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelechi John will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UTA Arad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1 for Marcel Lorber, marked 7.44, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Emerson Rodríguez 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.
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.
Steaua Bucharest held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. UTA Arad answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UTA Arad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UTA Arad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7.51, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UTA Arad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Marcel Lorber 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at UTA Arad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The name of Marinos Tzionis has come up in conversations UTA Arad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Emerson Rodríguez 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at UTA Arad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marinos Tzionis 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The offer from Universitatea Cluj for Kelechi John was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
UTA Arad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tocantinópolis, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Emerson Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
UTA Arad spend $4.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.1M for Andrei Dumiter, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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.
100 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Omar El-Sawy
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BSK Bijelo Brdo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Mura for Mate Antunović was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$1.7M on the table at Slaven Belupo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The name of Ivan Žutić has come up in conversations Lokomotiva Zagreb were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Lorber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Add another name to the list: Hrvace have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luka Dajčer. The answer from Lokomotiva Zagreb has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Cibalia 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.
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Marcel Lorber 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.
“I did not go to Mladost Zdralovi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiva Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have gone to NK Varazdin with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiva Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiva Zagreb lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 8 and 20 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Feta Fetai and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 4 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Varazdin have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.