Marked for Berk Beyhan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Cherno More training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Panayotov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Zhivko Atanasov 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Berk Beyhan
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Martin Nikolov is on it.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Celso Sidney story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Celso Sidney signs something — a contract at Cherno More or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kristian Tomov has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherno More this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
David Teles 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Asen Donchev beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Berk Beyhan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cherno More are still strangers to each other
9 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Georgi Sarmov after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jan Morávek commits to Cherno More for another 1 years.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Cherno More needed to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 19 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Zhivko Atanasov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bandaró wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cherno More can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Berk Beyhan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Georgi Sarmov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Cherno More dressing room was either.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Asen Donchev beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Slavia Sofia defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market28 Sep 2026
The name of Georgi Lazarov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cherno More say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.39 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Botev Vratsa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Berk Beyhan, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mihail Tsonev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Beroe next, and one man in the Cherno More dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kristian Tomov decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Martin Nikolov obliged against Vihren. 2‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Cherno More.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Bandaró runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A debut Stilyan Chochev will not forget — 7.59
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.59 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Cherno More, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Plamen Iliev
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.64 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$3.3M was the most the club would pay and Ludogorets 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.52 for the rest of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Cherno More — 7.33
1 for Luciano Squadrone, marked 7.33, 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Martin Nikolov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martin Nikolov has just signed for Cherno More, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Celso Sidney commits to Cherno More for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Zhivko Atanasov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Atanas Sarmov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stilyan Chochev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Boyan Nedyalkov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.