Marked for Matei Popa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Robert Filip 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florin Iacob was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florin Iacob, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Metalul Buzău next, and one man in the ASA Târgu Mureș dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ciprian Biceanu’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matei Popa: “I am not a substitute”
“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 ASA Târgu Mureș will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Matei Popa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to ASA Târgu Mureș to sit and watch. I want to come back to FCSB and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
FCSB are still strangers to each other
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Mamadou Thiam keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FCSB say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Octavian Popescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
6 appearances at Frosinone and the goals keep coming. FCSB are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Robert Filip and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Voluntari, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and ASA Târgu Mureș are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at ASA Târgu Mureș training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
CSM Slatina next, and one man in the ASA Târgu Mureș dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market28 Sep 2026
The George Ganea talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ASA Târgu Mureș know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Miloš Zukanović has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș 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
Squad21 Sep 2026
Robert Filip in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA Târgu Mureș this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Minute 85, against Chindia Târgoviște, 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Chindia Târgoviște leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alexandru Maxim after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at ASA Târgu Mureș training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florin Iacob 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Raul Rotund changes it off the bench
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and ASA Târgu Mureș had a different afternoon.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Matei Popa does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Sepsi OSK, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Ignat, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 Alexandru Maxim to a room that had heard them before.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Cristian Ciobanu 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chindia Târgoviște in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at ASA Târgu Mureș. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for FCSB
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Universitatea Craiova keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match12 Sep 2026
FCSB cannot find the net
3 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elvir Koljić, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at FCSB
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 FCSB, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Market14 Sep 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniel Dragusin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Cristian Măgeruşan takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cristian Măgeruşan provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 ASA Târgu Mureș, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now ASA Târgu Mureș have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tudor Oltean 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at ASA Târgu Mureș
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alexandru Maxim on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florin Iacob was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ciprian Biceanu and ASA Târgu Mureș agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Florin Bejan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA Târgu Mureș this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tudor Oltean 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Ciprian Biceanu’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Rapid Bucharest have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $3.9M for Eguinaldo
FCSB have gone to Shakhtar with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Yokohama F. Marinos have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Primorje come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and FCSB did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juri Cisotti and FCSB agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at FCSB
Juri Cisotti 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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; FCSB are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Politehnica Iași have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Răzvan Udrea. The answer from FCSB has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vlad Chiricheş retires from international football
“78 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 36 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at FCSB.