It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting CP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Teden Mengi has just signed for Sporting CP, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad17 May 2032
Álex Valle 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.
Porto will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tommaso Berti has pre-agreed a move to Sporting CP, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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 Sporting CP know it.
Nobody at Sporting CP 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.
3‑1 against OB, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sporting CP, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting CP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fredrik Aursnes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Bucharest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Bucharest people have started saying his name in the past tense.
CFR Cluj have accepted the money. What Dinamo Bucharest do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 13 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edison Unocc will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Hajduk Split is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
In brief
SquadIonut Mitrita arrives at the club he grew up with
SquadWords at Dinamo Bucharest training over how hard people work
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Bucharest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Assad Al Hamlawi provided it, and the 9.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrei Mitrita provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Bucharest have done the hard part with Red Bull Salzburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ludogorets keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Bucharest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bucharest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Bucharest will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Assad Al Hamlawi provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bucharest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Bucharest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Bucharest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 135 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Bucharest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
0‑3 to Astra, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cătălin Cîrjan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovacko have kept their man, and Dinamo Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Cristian Mihai
The offer from Petrolul for Andrei Mitrita 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Bucharest have done the hard part with FC Copenhagen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arseniy Asonov is living that version at Dinamo Bucharest, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Dinamo Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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
The dugoutCaleb Ansen knocks on the manager's door
MarketThe clock does Stuart Findlay’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Petrolul waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$5.3M on the table at CFR Cluj. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stuart Findlay will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dinamo Bucharest had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Stuart Findlay has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Stoinov 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.
Dinamo Bucharest asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Paul Keseru has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ianis Deac will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ionuţ Gurău is living that version at Dinamo Bucharest, and it tends to show in the first month.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Dinamo Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” George Maxim has his answer from Dinamo Bucharest; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladimir Laptev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cătălin Cîrjan 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
Octavian Vâlceanu is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Bucharest. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladimir Laptev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Stoinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristian Mihai trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Stoinov signs something — a contract at Dinamo Bucharest or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Bucharest, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Bucharest know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Bucharest can pretend not to have heard.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo Bucharest, another week without a signature from Stuart Findlay.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dinamo Bucharest will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 35 with 302 appearances behind him, and Dinamo Bucharest have to plan for both answers.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Dinamo Bucharest scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Dinamo Bucharest and a story that will outlast his contract.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bucharest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cătălin Cîrjan 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.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bucharest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bryan Meyo has, at Dinamo Bucharest, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Stoinov 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.
“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; Dinamo Bucharest are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astra have kept their man, and Dinamo Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pandurii waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Petrolul for Andrei Mitrita 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.
CFR Cluj have accepted the money. What Dinamo Bucharest do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alexandru Burca is living that version at Dinamo Bucharest, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrei Nita will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Bucharest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑5 against Sion. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
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.
Position 2 on 39 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Nabil will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 146 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.
1‑2 against Hajduk Split. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bucharest they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Stuart Findlay
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑6. Benfica play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
6 goals in one match, Alberto Soro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dinamo Bucharest and Petrolul.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Bucharest and Benfica in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alberto Soro at his very best
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Andrei Mitrita had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Pandurii were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Bucharest has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Stoinov 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑2 against Hajduk Split, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Nabil will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bucharest the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Position 3, 12 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Dinamo Bucharest and CFR Cluj have settled on $470.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dinamo Bucharest and Botosani, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Bucharest lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Bucharest have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
7 goals in one match, Andrei Mitrita on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dinamo Bucharest and Viitorul.
Dinamo Bucharest asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsAssad Al Hamlawi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
SquadWords at Dinamo Bucharest training over how hard people work
Player ratingsMatthias Verreth was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Bucharest lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Shooting Stars for Anthony Cletus 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrei Mitrita and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Bucharest and Astra in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Position 2, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Dinamo Bucharest, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Bucharest have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Bojan Adžić 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.