Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CFR Cluj will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ştefan Târnovanu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergiu Bancu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ştefan Târnovanu is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alin Fică signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CFR Cluj will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CFR Cluj will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 The request is on a desk at CFR Cluj, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CFR Cluj hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Jan 2033
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergiu Bancu 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.
Rijad Sadiku 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.
The phone has started ringing about Ibrahima Fall again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Bucharest. CFR Cluj are listening politely and promising nothing.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lisandro Silva Dias has, at CFR Cluj, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
CFR Cluj asked and Universitatea Craiova 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joaquín Ibáñez has agreed terms with Viitorul for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CFR Cluj they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ştefan Târnovanu 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.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Alin Fică 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.