Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pogon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑1 away to the standard of Club Brugge. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Filip Čuić 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Attila Szalai 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.
The goal that put Piast ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Pogon equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Astra the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Petrolul will enjoy reviewing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Bassi 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 The request is on a desk at Petrolul, and it is not being withdrawn.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Domen Cerin 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.
“I watch every Petrolul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pogon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
In brief
SquadCiprian Ratiu has become a man the manager trusts
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Attila Szalai 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.
Fredrik Ulvestad 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Léo Borges has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Dilan Gerez arrives from Panathinaikos with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Andrei Hagi was one of the reasons people came, and $3.0M does not replace that by itself.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pandurii moved on, Vlad Maxim reports back to Petrolul, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandre Picard is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Daniel Stanciu again, and this time the name on the line is Podbrezova. Petrolul are listening politely and promising nothing.
Cosmin Moldovan 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Bassi 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.
“I watch every Petrolul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Krylya Sovetov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Petrolul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Petrolul 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 Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Andrei Hagi 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Petrolul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Petrolul heard it as anything else.
In brief
SquadAndrei Hagi falls out with a teammate over standards
Cosmin Moldovan 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.60, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Daniel Burca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Bassi 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.
“I watch every Petrolul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Krylya Sovetov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Petrolul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Artem Shumanskiy did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fernando Costanza 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 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.
“I did not go to Chernomorets to sit and watch. I want to come back to Krylya Sovetov and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
1‑2 away to the standard of Sparta Prague. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Betão did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Andrei Hagi 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Daniel Coman.
“I watch every Petrolul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Krylya Sovetov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Position 14 and 8 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.
Nikita Kokarev 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Krylya Sovetov and Zenit, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Krylya Sovetov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Costanza 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.
Beaten 6 times, with 2 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gustavo Cascardo has just signed for Krylya Sovetov, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krylya Sovetov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Krylya Sovetov have gone and got theirs early.