Marked for Dragos Burca
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match11 Sep 2027
Pandurii cannot stop winning
6 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Jhonny Mena 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bogdan Stanciu. 2‑0 against FCSB, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vlad Burca and Pandurii agree another 4 years.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Loan watch13 Sep 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 Pandurii, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad9 Aug 2027
Jhonny Mena 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 ratings9 Aug 2027
Marked 9.40 — 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Petrolul made Pandurii work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market9 Aug 2027
Petrolul paid $84.0K 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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.94 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ştefan Pănoiu commits to Pandurii for another 3 years.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Dragos Burca 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
Dragos Burca hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pandurii can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Jul 2027
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.
Market19 Jul 2027
As if he never left: Alexandru Nita returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Alexandru Nita is a Pandurii player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market19 Jul 2027
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Jhonny Mena 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.
Squad19 Jul 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 Pandurii know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Jul 2027
Pandurii are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 29 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market12 Jul 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 Pandurii, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Jhonny Mena 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 Jul 2027
28 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market12 Jul 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Petrolul will make the call about Nicusor Stanciu this week. Pandurii have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A wage question at Pandurii
Jhonny Mena has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 156 days on the sidelines for Jhonny Mena, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Jhonny Mena 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Esteban Rueda, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Jhonny Mena 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.
Squad10 May 2027
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Dragos Burca, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Esteban Rueda, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.14 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Pandurii know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Jhonny Mena 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 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 Pandurii, and 5 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Daniel Stanciu 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dragos Burca and Pandurii agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dragos Man 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Vlad Coman has come up in conversations Pandurii were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Daniel Stanciu 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nicusor Stanciu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Pandurii.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Vlad Burca leaves them behind him
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.