88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
In brief
SquadGonzalo Senn falls out with a teammate over standards
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Florin Mihaila did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Luiz Porto 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandru Hagi and Astra agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mihai Burca 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.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Vlad Iancu was the best thing in any of them.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bogdan Maxim signs something — a contract at Astra or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Burca 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Vlad Iancu has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Astra know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mihai Burca 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.
It needed Ovidiu Ratiu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Dinamo Bucharest, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Ovidiu Ratiu has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and FCSB spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Claudiu Maxim takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Claudiu Maxim provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Luiz Porto 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Astra have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
Position 8 and 7 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Florin Mihaila, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pandurii moved on, Bogdan Maxim reports back to Astra, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
13 combined actions and 6.81. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mihai Burca 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Kryvbas moved on, Florin Hagi reports back to Astra, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luiz Porto. 1‑0 against Botosani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Burca 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Florin Mihaila is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Florin Mihaila, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer from Metalurh Zaporizhzhia for Florin Hagi 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.
Andrei Deac 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Florin Mihaila 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Bogdan Maxim in the middle of it, and Voluntari unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Maxim 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bogdan Tarasov has his answer from Astra; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Vladimir Hernández is 37 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.