Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ismael Sesay will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Belasitsa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ismael Sesay 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgi Varbanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mario Ivov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Montana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Belasitsa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Sofia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Belasitsa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georgi Varbanov 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Belasitsa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Veselin Lyubomirov and Belasitsa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 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.
Marked 7.31 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Ilker Budinov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Belasitsa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Slavia Sofia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Levski is saying, and nobody at Belasitsa is enjoying the guessing.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gergő Bárány has, at Belasitsa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferro Carril Oeste have kept their man, and Belasitsa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panayot Paskov 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.