Marked for Momchil Milanov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Momchil Milanov
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botev Plovdiv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Carlos Algarra
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Algarra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botev Plovdiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Samuel Kalu 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dimitar Atanasov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
The goals keep arriving from Nikola Iliev’s exile
12 goals in 28 games at Septemvri — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Botev Plovdiv updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Algarra, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Antoine Conte 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Mauro Rodrigues has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Botev Plovdiv will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Apr 2027
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Botev Plovdiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Botev Plovdiv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Samuel Kalu 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikolay Prandzhev is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrik Vydra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
28 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Momchil Milanov damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Patrik Vydra 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Todor Nedelev 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Hristo Popadiyn
“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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Antoine Conte is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Botev Plovdiv has been clear about where Antoine Conte stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Aleksa Maraš knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Botev Plovdiv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Botev Plovdiv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
28 appearances away from home and 4 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.