Marked for Bogdan Mitrita
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Petrolul
19 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
63 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Oct 2027
Every point is an argument now for Petrolul
Position 10 and 2 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.
Market25 Oct 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 The request is on a desk at Petrolul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Valentin Creţu 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Petrolul know it.
Match23 Oct 2027
A bad afternoon for Petrolul against Astra
0‑2 to Astra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Petrolul, and it is a cruel one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
Voluntari come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Petrolul did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bogdan Mitrita is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentin Creţu and Petrolul agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Mihai Man 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florin Tanase, and the manager let it.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Astra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Botosani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Loan watch10 May 2027
24 appearances at Vorskla and the goals keep coming. Astra are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ianis Dragusin commits to Astra for another 3 years.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Astra
Mihai Man 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Macaulay is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
“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 Astra, and 7 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad12 Apr 2027
When it matters, Ianis Ratiu plays
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.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
24 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Gonzalo Burgoa breaks a bone — 137 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 137 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Dec 2026
Ianis 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 Astra hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Man 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Astra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
17 starts now, an average of 6.55, and the team sheet at Inhulets has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match14 Nov 2026
Astra are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Daniel Deac is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.30 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mihai Man 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Astra
8 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Nikola Stevanović 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mihai Man 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Astra are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonathan Macaulay commits to Astra for another 4 years.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Chances created: 9. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Market19 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianluca Schiavone signs something — a contract at Astra or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Stefan Ratiu
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Astra taken apart
0‑3 to Pandurii, 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Astra heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Mihai Man
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mihai Man, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Doors closed at Astra
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Spartaks to sit and watch. I want to come back to Astra and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Astra
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Petrolul's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Petrolul has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Valentin Creţu 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
Petrolul spend $350.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $350.0K for Alexandru Burca, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dele Israel gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad24 Aug 2026
At 20 years old, Alexandru Burca became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Petrolul have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
9‑0, and Ciprian Dragusin took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Astra tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marius Bancu could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.76
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.76, 2 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Ciprian Dragusin, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Daniel Deac, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market3 Aug 2026
Astra say no — this time
The offer from Spezia for Ianis Dragusin 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Ianis 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 Astra hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ianis Ratiu 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ciprian Dragusin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match1 Aug 2026
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Astra and Viitorul in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.