4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Hervin Ongenda 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Botosani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Chinonso Chibueze is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Momar Fall has just signed for Botosani, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Botosani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hervin Ongenda 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 Botosani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Botosani no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Botosani know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zvonimir Šarlija and Istra 1961 agree another 3 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Istra 1961 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Petar Corluka 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Vinko Rozić 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emil Frederiksen signs something — a contract at Istra 1961 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Mohamed Nasraoui 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinko Rozić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Dukan Ahmeti
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dukan Ahmeti has come out of that comparison in the side, and Istra 1961 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.