Marked for Sevi Idriz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Svetoslav Bodurov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Plovdiv can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 2027
Bojan Milosavljević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Fase was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“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 Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and 8 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout3 May 2027
Parvizjon Umarbaev loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Parvizjon Umarbaev's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad3 May 2027
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Market3 May 2027
“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 dugout3 May 2027
Enzo Espinoza 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Plovdiv can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Fase was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I did not go to Dobrudzha to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiv Plovdiv and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 34 matches say the rest.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Nasko Milev. Lokomotiv Plovdiv will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Nasko Milev 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lokomotiv Plovdiv can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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 Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokomotiv Plovdiv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nasko Milev and Lokomotiv Plovdiv agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Andrei Chindriş and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julien Lamy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Dobrudzha to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiv Plovdiv and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Parvizjon Umarbaev was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Something was said to Boris Dimitrov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Svetoslav Bodurov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad8 Feb 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 7.64 at 15, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Hristo Popadiyn in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Chindriş was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv Plovdiv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Plovdiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A move Simão Lopes would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simão Lopes is living that version at Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match9 Jan 2027
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Mariyan Vangelov has come up in conversations Lokomotiv Plovdiv were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Lokomotiv Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Leijten 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Nov 2026
Dobrudzha sink to position 16
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Dobrudzha
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Sevi Idriz: 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.” Dobrudzha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Aleks Stojaković 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
2‑3 to Spartak 1918, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Aleks Stojaković 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Daniel Ivanov at his very best
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dobrudzha.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Anger at Lokomotiv Plovdiv spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market2 Nov 2026
Efe Ali puts it in writing
“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 Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Andrei Chindriş 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Lokomotiv Plovdiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Lamy 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Spartak 1918, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.