Marked for Iván Martínez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Botev Vratsa's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Botev Vratsa has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kristiyan Malinov 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Daniel Genov 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
The one thing Mitchy Ntelo could not do
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
13 matches without a win for Botev Vratsa
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Botev Vratsa are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
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
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botev Vratsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladimir Tsapurin, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 94% of everything Botev Vratsa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
The one thing Mitchy Ntelo could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Match31 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Botev Vratsa?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Septemvri? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Botev Vratsa's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Botev Vratsa has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 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 Botev Vratsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.50, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Mitchy Ntelo
10 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bahlul Ramazanov and Botev Vratsa agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market26 Oct 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Botev Vratsa signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Shady Oukhadda 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casertana know it.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Picerno, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Pietro Martino
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Karlo Butić 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 429% of everything Casertana earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Francesco Rodio
“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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Iván Martínez is 20, and Casertana have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 9.15 — 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.98 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Puebla leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Diego Campillo 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 Diego Campillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Brian Gutiérrez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.