28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiv Plovdiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA 1948 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mamadou Diallo provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Botev Vratsa for Szymon Bąk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA 1948 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Ludogorets kept coming because nothing stopped them, and CSKA 1948 will be asked about the last half hour all week.
7.72, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA 1948 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stefan Kalinov has, at CSKA 1948, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Tsonev 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.
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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA 1948 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 CSKA 1948, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matteo Salamon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSKA 1948 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
CSKA 1948 asked and Lokomotiv Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
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 1‑2 Stoycho Chochev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Azam Radzhabov 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Borislav Tsonev 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.
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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Ivan Tasev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CSKA 1948.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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.” Stoycho Chochev, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA 1948 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Hoffmann 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.
“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 dugout19 Nov 2029
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 1‑2 Stoycho Chochev left the room before anybody could ask which.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑4 to Beroe, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSKA 1948 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamadou Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSKA 1948 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
Ognjen Gašević 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.
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.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Borislav Tsonev 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lyubomir Slavchev and CSKA 1948 agree another 3 years.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑4 to Levski, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
He is 18, he is averaging 6.57, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
CSKA 1948 asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lokomotiv Plovdiv; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.93 for the rest of it.
CSKA 1948 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
0‑4 against Botev Vratsa, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Artem Korneev has just signed for CSKA 1948, and for once the answer mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSKA 1948 have done the hard part with Montana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
CSKA 1948 asked and Slavia Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of André Hoffmann
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mamadou Diallo had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Beroe were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSKA 1948 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSKA 1948 have done the hard part with Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSKA 1948 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA 1948 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gustavo Almeida has just signed for CSKA 1948, and for once the answer mattered.
The shirt still fits. Gustavo Almeida is back at CSKA 1948, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
A loan enquiry to Slovan Bratislava: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA 1948 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Beroe 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.
CSKA 1948 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sparta Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 20 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.
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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Hoffmann 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.
In brief
The dugoutAtanas Iliev has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slavia Sofia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA 1948 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and CSKA 1948 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSKA 1948, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 CSKA 1948, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Richard Robert has, at CSKA 1948, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Tsonev 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.
Richard Robert is 16, and CSKA 1948 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.
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 Atanas Iliev is on it.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA 1948 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 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 CSKA 1948 know it.
Nobody at CSKA 1948 will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Diallo 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.
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.
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 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 CSKA 1948 know it.
0‑4 against Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Position 7 on 40 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
CSKA 1948 close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 7 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.
Kristiyan Malinov 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.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Favorito has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means CSKA 1948 have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Botev Plovdiv have accepted the money. What CSKA 1948 do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deal with Cherno More 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 easiest signature of my career.” Dimitar Sheytanov and CSKA 1948 agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
3‑6 to Botev Plovdiv, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Borislav Tsonev 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between CSKA 1948 and Botev Plovdiv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at CSKA 1948 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tasev 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA 1948 has been clear about where Mamadou Diallo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA 1948 can pretend not to have heard.
Yohann Magnin 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.
10 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borislav Tsonev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Salamon, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Berna was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Minute 94, against Botev Vratsa, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Emil Viyachki 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamadou Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Berna. 2‑1 against Spartak 1918, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CSKA 1948.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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.” Stoycho Chochev, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.