Marked for Marc Filip
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2028
The small margins put Vlašim out
Out, 1‑3 to Slavia Prague, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market6 Nov 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Vlašim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Nov 2028
6 saves: Marc Filip was the team
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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Patrik Sehnal, 21, steals the show — 7.64
Marked 7.64 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.
Market6 Nov 2028
Niek Corthouts has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vlašim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Vlašim
Tomáš Kalas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Vlašim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chigozie Ani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 Nov 2028
Three points for Vlašim, 2‑1 the final word against Pribram in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vlašim may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Vlašim
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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Kaštánek, and the manager let it.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
94% of the income goes out in wages at Vlašim
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.
Market13 Mar 2028
He is 19, and nobody at Vlašim signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Islam Slimani and CFR Cluj agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at CFR Cluj
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Francisco Barrios 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
Market8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Pierce Charles named in the team of the month
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at CFR Cluj
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Yuval Sade has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 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.
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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Whatever happens, CFR Cluj do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Pierce Charles
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.