Marked for Raf Braitman
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2029
Viitorul bow out of the cup
Dinamo Bucharest go through and Viitorul go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Mohammed Kamara 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Viitorul
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Muhar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Mohammed Kamara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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 dugout26 Nov 2029
Marc Filip 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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Andrei Nedelcearu to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Karlo Muhar gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Karlo Muhar is on it.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
George Merloi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Viitorul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Mohammed Kamara 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Viitorul
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Muhar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Karlo Muhar gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Karlo Muhar is on it.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrei Nedelcearu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Market29 Oct 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Raf Braitman has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Viitorul.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 May 2029
The knee: Luka Kukić out for 59 days
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Viitorul lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 May 2029
23 days out for Troy Tomşa after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Viitorul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 May 2029
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Viitorul will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad28 May 2029
Words exchanged at Viitorul
Mohammed Kamara 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.
Boardroom28 May 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dimitri Lucea has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Viitorul have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout28 May 2029
“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.
The dugout28 May 2029
Mohammed Kamara has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Viitorul 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.
Market28 May 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ahmed Guettaf has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Viitorul.
The dugout28 May 2029
Luka Kukić 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 Luka Kukić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Twente had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Ryotaro Ito 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
$160.0K was the most the club would pay and OH Leuven were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market24 Jul 2028
The name of Kaito Matsuzawa has come up in conversations Sint-Truiden were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Sint-Truiden training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shogo Taniguchi 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 dugout24 Jul 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sint-Truiden, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jul 2028
Oumar Diouf 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 Sint-Truiden can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sint-Truiden have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Ryotaro Ito 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
$300.0K was the most the club would pay and KV Kortrijk were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shogo Taniguchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
7 new boys at the Sint-Truiden academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2028
56 days out for Charles Meunier after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sint-Truiden will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match12 Feb 2028
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Lokeren. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ryotaro Ito 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 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ryan Merlen and Sint-Truiden agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ilias Sebaoui 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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samed Baždar, and the manager let it.
Match12 Feb 2028
Lokeren made Sint-Truiden work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Ryotaro Ito beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.