Marked for Stefan Coman
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Jan 2027
Astra sink to position 9
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jan 2027
92 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Astra
Cosmin Ratiu 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adrian Caragea and Astra agree another 4 years.
Market25 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Razvan Stanciu signs something — a contract at Astra or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Jan 2027
109 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market18 Jan 2027
The fee is $140.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Dinamo Bucharest drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Stefan Coman 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad18 Jan 2027
102 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Dec 2026
Astra sink to position 9
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Dec 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
121 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Razvan Stanciu knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Razvan Stanciu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 2026
“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 Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Dec 2026
140 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Stefan Coman 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Dec 2026
Astra say no — this time
The offer from Cruzeiro for Bogdan Tanase 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Cosmin Ratiu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Dec 2026
“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 Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Dec 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Astra have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Stefan Coman 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
150 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dragos Mitrita and Astra agree another 2 years.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to FCSB to sit and watch. I want to come back to Astra and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Nov 2026
Astra sink to position 9
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market30 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Stefan Coman 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Astra
A 0‑0 win over Dinamo Bucharest, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market23 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Stefan Coman is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Stefan Coman: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad23 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cristian Dragusin commits to Astra for another 5 years.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Bogdan Balasa 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Cosmin Ratiu
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.96 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Nov 2026
Astra sink to position 9
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 31 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ilya Ushakov in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Stefan Coman 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bogdan Balasa. 1‑0 against Voluntari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Stefan Coman 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Coman, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.02 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Astra
Stefan Coman 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Astra against Petrolul
0‑2 to Petrolul, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Stefan Coman knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Constantin Budescu, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
The one thing Razvan Balasa could not do
Shots: 6, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Shots: 7. 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
The name of Cristian Dragusin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Astra say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
5.59 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astra can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Stefan Coman 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
CFR Cluj made Astra work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Astra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FCSB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Stefan Coman asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandru Nedelcearu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Astra
Position 10 and 6 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Astra
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad5 Oct 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Astra against Viitorul
1‑3 to Viitorul, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 88 days on the sidelines for Mihai Balasa, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.