Marked for Miroslav Delev
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Mar 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 The request is on a desk at Arda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anatoli Gospodinov commits to Arda for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Arda are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market8 Mar 2027
The Patrick Luan talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Arda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match8 Mar 2027
Continental football is in reach for Arda
44 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 Mar 2027
David Idowu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arda can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Feb 2027
8 unbeaten for Arda
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Arda did not have in the autumn.
Market1 Mar 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Deroy Duarte gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Arda
Preslav Bachev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Miroslav Delev
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match20 Feb 2027
Arda make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Arda have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Arda
Andrey Yordanov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match20 Feb 2027
Three points for Arda, 1‑0 the final word against Dobrudzha in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
7.78, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Arda had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Miroslav Delev
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match13 Feb 2027
6 unbeaten for Arda
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Arda did not have in the autumn.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Arda
Andrey Yordanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Patrick Luan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arda.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Feb 2027
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match6 Feb 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Arda scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Patrick Luan to Botev Plovdiv has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Arda with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market8 Feb 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botev Vratsa have kept their man, and Arda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Svetoslav Kovachev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arda.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Patrick Luan at his very best
Marked 8.69. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arda.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Deroy Duarte beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
In brief
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Boardroom
Arda release $3.1M for the manager
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Arda
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Squad
Erick Marcus named in the team of the month