Berni Kassy Ghoy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Politehnica Iași this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Alin Boţogan 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.
Politehnica Iași asked and Sepsi OSK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Berni Kassy Ghoy 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.
Mario Tudose 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sékou Camara 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Alex Valera has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Dávid Sigér 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alin Boţogan 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.
At 22 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.
A 2‑0 win over CSC Dumbrăvița, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ciprian Bancu could afford to be generous.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Alex Valera was the best thing in any of them.
At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Politehnica Iași this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dávid Sigér 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rareş Ispas and Politehnica Iași agree another 3 years.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Politehnica Iași, another week without a signature from Dokou Dodo.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Politehnica Iași, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Paulino 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.