“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vlašim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bojan Đorđić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Jakub Kolísek 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.
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.
Pierce Charles 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pierce Charles is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market8 Mar 2027
Marc Filip returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
Something was said to Stefan Dražić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at CFR Cluj 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CFR Cluj can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
CFR Cluj asked and Universitatea Craiova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I did not go to Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț to sit and watch. I want to come back to CFR Cluj and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christopher Braun 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.
Ciprian Deac 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CFR Cluj can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and CFR Cluj have had the benefit of it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Andrei Cordea has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
At 19 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ASA Târgu Mureș have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ionuţ Dinu 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CFR Cluj, another week without a signature from Andrei Cordea.
“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 CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrian Păun. 2‑0 against Metaloglobus Bucharest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christopher Braun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ciprian Deac 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.
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marc Filip 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against FC Bacău in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A brace, and Adrian Păun takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrian Păun provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CFR Cluj 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 Christopher Braun 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 CFR Cluj, another week without a signature from Laurenţiu Popescu.
“I did not go to Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț to sit and watch. I want to come back to CFR Cluj and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Nicusor Nedelcearu, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
“I did not go to Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț to sit and watch. I want to come back to CFR Cluj and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Ciprian Deac 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adrian Păun signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A brace, and Islam Slimani takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Islam Slimani provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ovidiu Perianu reports back to CFR Cluj with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Islam Slimani. 2‑0 against Petrolul Ploiești, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Petrolul Ploiești were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christopher Braun 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CFR Cluj, another week without a signature from Aldair Ferreira.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CFR Cluj, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antonio Preda is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mark Ţuţu is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, and both men came out saying it was fine.