Marked for Ovidiu Dragusin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
10 saves: Luiz Porto was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by Astra, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Sep 2026
Luiz Porto 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 Pandurii can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Pandurii's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pandurii has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Pandurii asked and Racing Santander said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Sep 2026
Pandurii are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Pandurii
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovidiu Dragusin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Idrissa Dioh, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Pandurii
Position 9 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pandurii can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pandurii will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Sep 2026
7 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Pandurii say no — this time
The offer from CFR Cluj for Dorin Maxim 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Pandurii
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Pandurii are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 3 in, 1 out at Pandurii
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Pandurii is enjoying the guessing.
Match5 Sep 2026
FCSB left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match19 Aug 2026
Pandurii bow out of the cup
Voluntari go through and Pandurii go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Aug 2026
Pandurii say no — this time
The offer from FCSB for Sergiu Balasa 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.98, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pandurii can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Pandurii's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pandurii has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pandurii
Daniel Nedelcearu 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.