Marked for Vladimir Ivanov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Mikhail Petrolay out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Septemvri will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Septemvri can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Kubrat Onasci and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Septemvri
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebas Wade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stoyan Stoichkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Septemvri's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Septemvri has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Dec 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 Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Afonso Silva 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miroslav Georgiev and Septemvri agree another 3 years.
Match11 Dec 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Slavia Sofia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Petar Chochev was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Septemvri dressing room was either.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stoyan Stoichkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Septemvri have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“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; Septemvri are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Wade 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 2027
A promise honoured for Sebas Wade
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Septemvri told Sebas Wade something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad15 Nov 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 Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladimir Ivanov, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Borislav Stoichkov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market15 Nov 2027
The Faiz Mattoir story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Faiz Mattoir signs something — a contract at Septemvri or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
12 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
Belasitsa strike at the death to beat Hebar
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Hebar had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Belasitsa did not stop to explain themselves.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tymur Korablin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 21 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Belasitsa know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Rumen Sandev is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Statev, and the manager let it.
Match9 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tymur Korablin. 1‑0 against Hebar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Tymur Korablin at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Belasitsa.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rumen Sandev and Belasitsa agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tymur Korablin 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
106% of the income goes out in wages at Belasitsa
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.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against CSKA Sofia II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Mario Mladenov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belasitsa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Asen Mitkov, 21, steals the show — 8.06
Marked 8.06 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Vladimir Ivanov: 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.” Belasitsa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Stefan Statev 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 terraces9 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Asen Mitkov
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Asen Mitkov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Belasitsa.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Belasitsa
David Ivanov 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.