Marked for Ionut Bancu
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Viitorul's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Viitorul has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ionut Bancu 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
FCSB left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marius Nita 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bogdan Mitrita dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Sep 2026
Viitorul are in real trouble now
Position 8, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad21 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Marius Nita has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Viitorul will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ciprian Hagi changes it off the bench
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Viitorul had a different afternoon.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Chances created: 6. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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 Viitorul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.72 on the card, and the Viitorul support went home talking about one name.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Mihai Dragusin
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mihai Dragusin has come out of that comparison in the side, and Viitorul have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Viitorul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yoichi Naganuma 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. George Cicaldau has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.69 on the card, and the Viitorul support went home talking about one name.
Squad31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Viitorul have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
$4.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Federico Flores obliged against Botosani. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Viitorul.
Match19 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Viitorul scored in the 98th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Marius Nita
There were 7 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.
Market24 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.
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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Viitorul sell a favourite for $4.0M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mihai Marin was one of the reasons people came, and $4.0M does not replace that by itself.
Squad24 Aug 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑3 to CFR Cluj, 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Viitorul say no — this time
The offer from FCSB for Ionut Bancu 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Yoichi Naganuma 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. Yoichi Naganuma is living that version at Viitorul, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ionut Bancu 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dragos Iancu, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Viitorul dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A smaller club would suit Marius Nita now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Viitorul can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Ionut Bancu has come up in conversations Viitorul were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ionut Bancu commits to Viitorul for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dragos Iancu 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Botosani paid $550.0K and Viitorul took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marius Nita 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
George Stanciu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bogdan Cicaldau has his answer from Viitorul; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match8 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dinamo Bucharest defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ionut Bancu 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 Viitorul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Viitorul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Marin 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was George Stanciu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Viitorul.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Daniel Dragusin has come up in conversations Viitorul were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.