Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreiaş Calcan 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.
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $20.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bogdan Nedelcearu has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari 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.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CS Tunari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CS Tunari can pretend not to have heard.
Gabi Iancu 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.
Ákos Nistor scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to CSC Dumbrăvița, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaël Nandjou Kwingoua 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at CS Tunari is running low.
Robert Silaghi 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabi Iancu 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Marked 6.76 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bogdan Nedelcearu after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Steaua Bucharest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sory Traoré
CS Afumați go through and CS Tunari go home, 4‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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 CS Tunari, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CS Tunari have done the hard part with Rapid Bucharest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. UTA Arad have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sory Traoré 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bogdan Nedelcearu has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CS Tunari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CS Tunari can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Ionuţ Dinu 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.
Jovanie Tchouatcha 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.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ionuţ Dinu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CS Tunari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Dinu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Jovanie Tchouatcha 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 129% of everything CS Tunari earn
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Universitatea Craiova go through and CS Tunari go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nathan Kasia Nkondo is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Dinu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Tiberiu Căpuşă 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ionuţ Dinu 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; CS Tunari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Olimpia Satu Mare in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CS Tunari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Sory Traoré obliged against Metalul Buzău. 2‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CS Tunari.
Marked 7.15 on 22 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CS Tunari know it.
Gabi Iancu 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ionuţ Dinu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andreiaş Calcan. 2‑0 against Chindia Târgoviște, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Dinu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
CS Tunari asked and CFR Cluj said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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 Levente Bara is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at CS Tunari would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at CS Tunari is running low.
Gabi Iancu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Dinu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botosani have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CS Tunari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
CS Tunari have made the call to Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Farul Constanța: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.