Marked for Matei Popa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Jan 2027
FCSB up to position 2
33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with CFR Cluj; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Damac is saying, and nobody at FCSB is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at FCSB
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tudor Băluţă was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Al-Fayha: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at FCSB
Jérémie Lioka 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joyskim Dawa, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Florin Bancu out for 126 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pandurii will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Pandurii have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The deal with Universitatea Craiova 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Bogdan Deac 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 Pandurii this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ovidiu Stanciu 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout18 Jan 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.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
“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 Pandurii, and 2 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pandurii have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Pandurii
Bogdan Deac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrian Bancu and Pandurii agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Pandurii training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovidiu Stanciu 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MFK Skalica have kept their man, and Pandurii go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Adrian Bancu gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Matei Popa wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Pandurii will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
When it matters, Bogdan Deac plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Dec 2026
FCSB up to position 2
33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FCSB may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at FCSB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tudor Băluţă 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.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
10 appearances at Frosinone and the goals keep coming. FCSB are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Juri Cisotti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FCSB 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Viktor Baier knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Viktor Baier trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Darius Olaru keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FCSB say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
Matei Popa’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 8 appearances at Pandurii. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
A European night to forget for Pandurii
0‑4. Sunderland play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Matei Popa
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pandurii lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Dec 2026
Chastening afternoon for Pandurii
A 0‑4 beating by Young Boys was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Bogdan Deac beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Cristian Licsandru 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 dugout14 Dec 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.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cosmin Dragusin
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pandurii lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ovidiu Stanciu 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.
Squad7 Dec 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 Pandurii will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Pandurii
Bogdan Mihaila 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
When it matters, Bogdan Deac plays
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.
Market7 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Nov 2026
FCSB are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Joyskim Dawa: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCSB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Darius Olaru 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 FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Daniel Graovac
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Juri Cisotti gets picked when it counts
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 Juri Cisotti is on it.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
The name of Darius Olaru keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FCSB say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
6 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
5 clean sheets on loan for Matei Popa
8 appearances at Pandurii and the goals have stopped going in. FCSB lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pandurii lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match28 Nov 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Stefan Mihaila will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Pandurii escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Match28 Nov 2026
A European lesson for Pandurii
2‑3 against NK Domzale. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Stefan Mihaila takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stefan Mihaila provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.70 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Bogdan 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
OB made Pandurii work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cosmin Dragusin
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pandurii lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑5 to Astra, 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Pandurii
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Pandurii are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Pandurii
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Pandurii
Bogdan Deac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ovidiu Stanciu 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lisandru Olmeta, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Matei Popa
There were 15 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pandurii lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Estoril Praia, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Nov 2026
Pandurii beaten on the continent
0‑2 against Sion, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Pandurii
Bogdan Deac 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 terraces9 Nov 2026
Pandurii supporters have found a favourite in Matei Popa
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Matei Popa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Looking ahead9 Nov 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Pandurii training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Licsandru 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cosmin Dragusin
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pandurii lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match2 Nov 2026
Pandurii are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 27 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ouattara Moudjatovic 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 terraces2 Nov 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
The big one: FCSB come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Pandurii will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Pandurii training over how hard people work
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Squad
A month that belonged to Matei Popa
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Matei Popa
There were 14 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cosmin Dragusin damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Pandurii beaten on the continent
1‑2 against Sion, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Estoril Praia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Botosani, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Pandurii training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicusor Nedelcearu 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.77, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch26 Oct 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 Pandurii, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pandurii lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Matei Popa: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pandurii have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Bogdan Deac beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Pandurii's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pandurii has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Pandurii
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pandurii can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 21 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
19 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Pandurii
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Licsandru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Stefan Balasa 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Lisandru Olmeta
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Stefan Mihaila has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
11 saves: Matei Popa was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cosmin Dragusin damages knee ligaments — 96 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑5. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Match5 Oct 2026
Pandurii refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Adrian Tanase 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matei Popa, and the manager let it.
Match5 Oct 2026
Pandurii at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 3, 20 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Pandurii dressing room in a hurry
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Squad
Nicusor Nedelcearu falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cosmin Dragusin
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pandurii lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pandurii this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
CFR Cluj made Pandurii work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Pandurii
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Licsandru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Sep 2026
The half-term report on Pandurii
Position 3, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the Pandurii support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Viitorul to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pandurii and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ciprian Nedelcearu could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pandurii have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match29 Aug 2026
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Stefan Mihaila was at the centre of it, Dinamo Bucharest were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Stefan Mihaila takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stefan Mihaila provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pandurii can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Cosmin Moldovan has come up in conversations Pandurii were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Jan Salas
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pandurii have done the hard part with Mallorca, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
4‑1, and Mamadou Thiam took the headlines on an afternoon when everything FCSB tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matei Popa had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dino Perić gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dino Perić has just signed for FCSB, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
FCSB have gone to Pandurii 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $770.0K — a club that wants Dragos Puscas enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Darius Olaru and FCSB agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Red Bull Salzburg this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
FCSB asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was David Miculescu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to FCSB.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.67 — 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Botosani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matei Popa. The answer from FCSB has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months and counting on Juri Cisotti
Still no offer on the table, and Juri Cisotti’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Real Sociedad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.