Marked for Hunor Németh
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Mar 2033
Full time on the season at Hermannstadt
Position 2 on 57 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market7 Mar 2033
Only the photograph left for Hunor Németh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hunor Németh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hermannstadt the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout7 Mar 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Mar 2033
Christophe Kabongo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Mar 2033
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ciubotaru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Mar 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Bîrligea. 2‑0 against Unirea Slobozia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Mar 2033
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings7 Mar 2033
One of those days for Adam Čadek
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market7 Mar 2033
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hermannstadt, another week without a signature from Victor Dican.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Feb 2033
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match2 Feb 2033
Dinamo Bucharest are out and Hermannstadt go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market7 Feb 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Feb 2033
A fracture rules Dorin Man out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hermannstadt will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Feb 2033
Only the photograph left for Hunor Németh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hunor Németh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hermannstadt the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings7 Feb 2033
Hunor Németh pops up at the right end — 7.89
7.89, 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
Hermannstadt close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2033
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Raków Częstochowa is saying, and nobody at Hermannstadt is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jan 2033
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rapid Bucharest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hermannstadt is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings10 Jan 2033
A brace, and Hunor Németh takes the afternoon — 8.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hunor Németh provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Jan 2033
“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.
Market10 Jan 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hermannstadt is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2033
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CFR Cluj keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jan 2033
Christophe Kabongo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Jan 2033
A conversation is coming this week. Hermannstadt will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Match8 Jan 2033
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Hermannstadt and Metaloglobus Bucharest, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match8 Jan 2033
It finished 4‑2, and it was Hunor Németh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hermannstadt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom3 Jan 2033
Francisco Torres has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Hermannstadt can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match1 Jan 2033
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Daniel Bîrligea will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Hermannstadt escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Boardroom3 Jan 2033
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market3 Jan 2033
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2033
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hermannstadt have had the benefit of it.
Market3 Jan 2033
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hermannstadt heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Jan 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hermannstadt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jan 2033
Kevin Ciubotaru 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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2033
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Dec 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hermannstadt is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Christophe Kabongo 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.
Match25 Dec 2032
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Dec 2032
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
“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 dugout27 Dec 2032
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Francisco Torres to a room that had heard them before.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Jesper Renshusløkken 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 dugout27 Dec 2032
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 Daniel Bîrligea is on it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Dec 2032
A 1‑0 win over Politehnica Iași, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match13 Dec 2032
34 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings13 Dec 2032
Marked 7.99 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.
Market13 Dec 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hermannstadt is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match11 Dec 2032
Whatever happens, Hermannstadt do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Deji Elerewe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom13 Dec 2032
156% of the income goes out in wages at Hermannstadt
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The terraces13 Dec 2032
He is 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
The dugout22 Nov 2032
Luca Nagy keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hermannstadt may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market22 Nov 2032
Ihor Potimkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hermannstadt they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match20 Nov 2032
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Hermannstadt have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Deji Elerewe 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.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Words at Hermannstadt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Ciubotaru 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 ratings22 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Nov 2032
Half the programme played, position 4, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Nobody on the pitch touched Hunor Németh
7.89, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Hermannstadt had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
In brief
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Squad
8 new faces, and Hermannstadt are still learning each other
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The dugout
Daniel Bîrligea has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Nov 2032
Niki Radovič has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hermannstadt they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom15 Nov 2032
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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hermannstadt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom15 Nov 2032
Wages swallow 156% of the Hermannstadt income
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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Words at Hermannstadt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesper Renshusløkken 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 dugout15 Nov 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2032
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Unirea Slobozia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market15 Nov 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hermannstadt know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad15 Nov 2032
A season on the outside for Metod Jurhar
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hermannstadt has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Nov 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hermannstadt is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Christophe Kabongo 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.
Loan watch1 Nov 2032
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hermannstadt, and 0 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Hunor Németh 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
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.” Francisco Torres, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Oct 2032
“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 Hermannstadt, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Deji Elerewe 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.
Match23 Oct 2032
0‑1 to UTA Arad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
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 Francisco Torres left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Too much change too quickly at Hermannstadt
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
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 Daniel Bîrligea is on it.
Squad25 Oct 2032
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.
Market25 Oct 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
Ahmedin Avdić asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2032
The knee: Razvan Maxim out for 39 days
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hermannstadt lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Kenneth Simons arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kenneth Simons has, at Hermannstadt, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Deji Elerewe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
The offer went to Universitatea Cluj 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
Hermannstadt offered $110.0K; Dinamo 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
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.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Words at Hermannstadt training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Dumitru 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.
Market21 Jun 2032
Kenneth Simons is 20, and Hermannstadt 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Sep 2031
“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 FC Midtjylland, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $139.7K of what FC Midtjylland paid for Hunor Németh is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Martin Poulsen 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.
Market8 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Midtjylland is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Midtjylland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Igor Vekić gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Igor Vekić has just signed for FC Midtjylland, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and FC Midtjylland know which stage they are at.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at FC Midtjylland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Cantero 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.