Marked for Daniel Balasa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Apr 2031
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Petrolul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Mar 2031
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 21 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Andrei Cicaldau 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
Steady
Squad24 Mar 2031
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 28 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Cicaldau 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Mar 2031
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 35 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Mar 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Marius Cicaldau falls out with a teammate over standards
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Boardroom
The Petrolul production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Mar 2031
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 42 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Cicaldau 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Mar 2031
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 49 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Andrei Cicaldau 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
Steady
Squad24 Feb 2031
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Feb 2031
Paul Ratiu wants to know where this is going
“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 Petrolul hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Feb 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Andrei Cicaldau 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Paul Nita 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 Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Feb 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 70 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Feb 2031
“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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Cicaldau 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Feb 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 77 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Ovidiu Marin has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Petrolul can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
The Petrolul board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Feb 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Petrolul can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Marius Cicaldau 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
Steady
Squad27 Jan 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 84 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Jan 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Petrolul can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Darius Fălcuşan: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Petrolul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Jan 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 91 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Cristian Burca 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.
Market20 Jan 2031
Petrolul have let the market know Yuriy Pavlyukovets can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market20 Jan 2031
The clock does Ştefan Pănoiu’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Petrolul could ask drops and the wages Ştefan Pănoiu can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Jan 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 98 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Andrei Cicaldau 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A move Rodislav Trefilov 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. Rodislav Trefilov is living that version at Petrolul, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Kenan Kodro pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market13 Jan 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pavel Pashevich has his answer from Petrolul; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Jan 2031
Daniel Balasa breaks a bone — 105 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad6 Jan 2031
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. Petrolul will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market6 Jan 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Petrolul can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Jan 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Petrolul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Jan 2031
Paul Ratiu wants to know where this is going
“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 Petrolul hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Andrei Cicaldau 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.