Marked for Danilo van Roekel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Cristian Costin pops up at the right end — 7.96
7.96, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market31 Jul 2028
The offer from Unirea Slobozia for Bartosz Żelazowski was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Patrick 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cosmin Bucuroiu. 3‑1 against CS Tunari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radu Negru 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 targets31 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“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; CSC Șelimbăr are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad31 Jul 2028
5 new faces, and CSC Șelimbăr 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the CSC Șelimbăr boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
CSC Șelimbăr sell a favourite for $1.2M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ionuţ Ailenei was one of the reasons people came, and $1.2M does not replace that by itself.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Patrick 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 CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
CSC Șelimbăr asked and UTA Arad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“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 Jun 2028
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levi Malungu 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Wages swallow 121% of the CSC Șelimbăr income
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 May 2028
13 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market1 May 2028
David Beránek hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSC Șelimbăr can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 May 2028
Patrick 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad1 May 2028
Levi Malungu 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.
Market1 May 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Petrişor Petrescu has his answer from CSC Șelimbăr; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad1 May 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Danilo van Roekel has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout1 May 2028
Dorin Burca: “We have to be better”
“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.
The dugout1 May 2028
Ionuţ Panţîru 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 Ionuţ Panţîru trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Apr 2028
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Patrick and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Radu Negru 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stefan Višić. 1‑0 against Olimpia Satu Mare, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Apr 2028
CSC Șelimbăr are still strangers to each other
9 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Dorin Burca: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Ionuţ Ailenei has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CSC Șelimbăr 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
“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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Ionuţ Panţîru 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jan 2028
Petrişor Petrescu damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
A brace, and Stefan Višić takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stefan Višić provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Jan 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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” CSC Șelimbăr may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Patrick wants to go home
“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 CSC Șelimbăr know it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Patrick 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A move Danilo van Roekel would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Danilo van Roekel is living that version at CSC Șelimbăr, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at CSC Șelimbăr now.
Transfer targets10 Jan 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.