Marked for Dragos Moldovan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 70. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Oct 2028
The wait goes on for Petrolul
25 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
The goals have deserted Petrolul
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Petrolul can tell you which week it ends in.
Market9 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Petrolul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Oct 2028
Stefan Cicaldau 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ciprian Maxim and Petrolul agree another 2 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Sep 2028
The wait goes on for Petrolul
21 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Aranđel Stojković damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match9 Sep 2028
0‑3 to Dinamo Bucharest, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market11 Sep 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Petrolul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Sep 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Razvan Balasa 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Ciprian Maxim
“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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2028
16 matches without a win for Petrolul
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Petrolul are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Aranđel Stojković damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match12 Aug 2028
Nowhere to hide for Petrolul
0‑4 against FCSB, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match12 Aug 2028
The goals have deserted Petrolul
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Petrolul can tell you which week it ends in.
Market14 Aug 2028
“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 Petrolul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Désiré Bylansa is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Antonio Kuš has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market14 Aug 2028
The phone has started ringing about Daniel Kerl again, and this time the name on the line is Astra. Petrolul are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Urtzi Iriondo 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.
Market31 May 2027
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Petrolul no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Orlando Osorio
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
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Loan watch
Decision time nears on Mihai Maxim
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Loan watch
Mihai Maxim watches his loan from the bench
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
“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 Petrolul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ovidiu Perianu 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.