Marked for Cosmin Nedelcearu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Veres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Veres's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veres has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Veres
Wesley Pomba 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vanderlei dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Veres
Micael Babo arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
Shakhtar come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Veres did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Wesley Pomba 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 Veres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Veres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Honcharenko 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.44 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Veres had the best player on the pitch.
Match15 Aug 2026
Honours even between Veres and Poltava
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market17 Aug 2026
Veres bring in an old head
Vanderlei is 39 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
Istra 1961 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Astra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Astra sell a favourite for $15.2M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lucas Peixoto was one of the reasons people came, and $15.2M does not replace that by itself.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vlad Maxim and Astra agree another 5 years.
Squad10 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 Astra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vlad 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Vlad Maxim
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Astra will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.