Marked for Adrian Moldovan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Nov 2026
Hull City go through and West Ham United go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Axel Disasi 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nottingham Forest held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. West Ham United answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mohamadou Kanté
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the West Ham United 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Gyabi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Max Kilman 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 West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Gyabi 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Newcastle United will be the happier side with the point.
Market14 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Ham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at West Ham United would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 56. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Pandurii did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
George Mihaila has left for Astra in a $450.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marius Bancu 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.
Squad17 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 Pandurii this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Bogdan Cicaldau
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.47. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” George Deac commits to Pandurii for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Liverpool pay $20.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Adrian Moldovan ended with $9.9M changing hands and Pandurii out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
The fee is $5.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Hull City drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Darko Gyabi 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. Darko Gyabi is living that version at West Ham United, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Axel Disasi 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.