Marked for Sergiu Burca
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
George Deac beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Pandurii
George Deac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ionut Stanciu and Pandurii agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.58 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Pandurii had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
No place for Sergiu Burca on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pandurii pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Adam Žulevič makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Pandurii will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paul Chiriches after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Sergiu Burca beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Ovidiu Hagi yet — 7.96
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad30 Nov 2026
George Deac 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 Pandurii this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Nov 2026
FCSB made Pandurii work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Paul Chiriches, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ovidiu Burca
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The form table has caught Ovidiu Burca
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Market30 Nov 2026
The Ianis Bancu story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ianis Bancu signs something — a contract at Pandurii or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
Astra next, and one man in the Pandurii dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Nov 2026
“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 Pandurii, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Sergiu Tanase, 33, rolls back the years — 8.03
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
George Deac beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florin Bancu, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Pandurii
Ovidiu Hagi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Paul Chiriches kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Bookings catch up with Ianis Bancu
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Pandurii will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ovidiu Burca
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pandurii can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pandurii, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Sergiu Burca knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pandurii, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ionut Hagi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sergiu Balasa has written the date down.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up at home: Dinamo Bucharest, who go into it in position 3. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Oct 2026
“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 Pandurii, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
George Deac 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Pandurii
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pandurii can tell you which week it ends in.
Match24 Oct 2026
Universitatea Craiova left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicusor Nedelcearu commits to Pandurii for another 3 years.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Paul Chiriches left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ovidiu Burca
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Sergiu Balasa
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
George Deac beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Sergiu Tanase, 33, rolls back the years — 8.17
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicusor Nedelcearu is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Viitorul, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandru Moldovan, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
34 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market28 Sep 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ovidiu Burca has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Pandurii.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Paul Chiriches, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Pandurii
0‑2 against Voluntari, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Pandurii did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ianis Bancu beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Pandurii have gone to Ferencvaros with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pandurii
George Deac 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Botosani made Pandurii work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Sergiu Burca
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pandurii had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chornomorets had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
Pandurii pay Astra $1.8M for a proper upgrade
Astra did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.8M for George Deac, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Genoa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ovidiu Hagi 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left George Deac behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pandurii will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cosmin Puscas and Pandurii agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Ionut Marin goes
Sparta Prague paid $8.4M and Pandurii took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Pandurii did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Astra were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pandurii have done the hard part with Astra, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ianis Bancu and Pandurii agree another 5 years.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Pandurii training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dragos 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pandurii
Ovidiu Hagi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Ianis Bancu, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match1 Aug 2026
14‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad3 Aug 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Sergiu Burca takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergiu Burca provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ciprian Maxim, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ovidiu Hagi, 33, rolls back the years — 8.03
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $1.5M for Vlad Nita
Pandurii have gone to Astra with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Ianis Bancu 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 Pandurii hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.