Marked for Cândido Júnior
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cândido Júnior
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Câmpulung Muscel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Jul 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Câmpulung Muscel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Câmpulung Muscel have done the hard part with Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CFR Cluj keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Valentin Mărgărit has agreed terms with CS Afumați for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Stephan Drăghici and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Jacob Aboosah 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
Cândido Júnior damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Market3 Jul 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Câmpulung Muscel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rodrigo Carvalho has agreed terms with CS Tunari for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Stephan Drăghici 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 dugout3 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Amin Ziblim has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Câmpulung Muscel is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“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 Câmpulung Muscel know it.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darius Grosu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jun 2028
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Câmpulung Muscel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces26 Jun 2028
Anger at Câmpulung Muscel spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Câmpulung Muscel boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market26 Jun 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 Câmpulung Muscel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Unirea Slobozia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Stephan Drăghici 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Darius Grosu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
Cândido Júnior damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Market19 Jun 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 Câmpulung Muscel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Jacob Aboosah has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Câmpulung Muscel is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The deal with Rapid Bucharest 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Darius Grosu 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 Câmpulung Muscel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Câmpulung Muscel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Aboosah 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“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 Câmpulung Muscel know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Câmpulung Muscel's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Câmpulung Muscel has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Câmpulung Muscel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Nobody could get near Mario Ilie
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Aboosah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Lucas Lima 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“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; Câmpulung Muscel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ovidiu Iancu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicholas Andone
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Câmpulung Muscel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 Câmpulung Muscel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Câmpulung Muscel have gone to FCSB 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Milun Joković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
CFR Cluj wanted more than $68.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepsi OSK have kept their man, and Câmpulung Muscel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dumitru Rogac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market19 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mihai Man has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.