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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Unirea Slobozia have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CS Tunari. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Gabriel Buta 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.
CS Tunari asked and Universitatea 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Levente Bara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CS Tunari, another week without a signature from Cristi Bărbuţ.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CS Tunari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovidiu Perianu 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. Hermannstadt have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
CS Tunari have made the call to Dinamo Bucharest. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and CS Tunari will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutSory Traoré knocks on the manager’s door
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Unirea Slobozia have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levente Bara 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CS Tunari are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutXavi Estació knocks on the manager’s door
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 59 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
1 for João Paulo, marked 7.63, 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.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levente Bara 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Bogdan Tănase.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CS Tunari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Gabriel Buta 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.
“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 dugout1 May 2028
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 Claudiu Dragusin to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Levente Bara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Gabriel Buta 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Levente Bara 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one CS Tunari will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovidiu Perianu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Levente Bara 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ovidiu Perianu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Sebastian Moroz 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.
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Levente Bara a promise
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSM Slatina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alexandru Iamandache 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.
CSM Slatina asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 23 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.
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alin Dobrosavlevici 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.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ianis Dragusin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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.
Bachirou Yaméogo 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.
CS Tunari asked and Sepsi OSK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Levente Bara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A loan enquiry to Universitatea Craiova: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Marked 7.41. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Claudiu Dragusin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdan Tănase will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CS Tunari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jacob Poytress is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bachirou Yaméogo, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Claudiu Dragusin to a room that had heard them before.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CS Tunari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Joaquim Marques has his answer from CS Tunari; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Politehnica Iași in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CS Tunari would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CS Tunari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CS Tunari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovidiu Perianu 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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdan Tănase will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CS Tunari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovidiu Perianu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Claudiu Dragusin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the CS Tunari dressing room was either.
Nobody at CS Tunari is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against CSM Slatina? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CS Tunari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at CS Tunari until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
CS Tunari asked and Jihlava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Levente Bara 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CS Tunari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bachirou Yaméogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
João Paulo 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.
CS Tunari asked and Hermannstadt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CS Tunari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovidiu Perianu 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. Bohemians 1905 have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 dugout9 Aug 2027
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 Claudiu Dragusin left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 87% of the CS Tunari income
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CS Tunari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and CS Dinamo Bucharest were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Paulo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Polonia Warszawa have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A 1‑0 win over CS Dinamo Bucharest, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CS Tunari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovidiu Perianu 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Jacob Poytress 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.
CS Tunari have made the call to CSC Dumbrăvița. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CS Tunari have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bachirou Yaméogo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deal with Farul Constanța is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
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.
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.
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.