The Astra Chronicle
Market20 Dec 2027
Only the photograph left for Vlad Chiriches
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vlad Chiriches will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astra the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Claudiu Moldovan 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Steven Fortes wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Astra know it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Astra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Heriberto Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Ianis Coman signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ianis Coman commits to Astra for another 3 years.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
No hiding place for Iwo Polakow
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iwo Polakow, and the manager let it.
In brief
- The dugout Heriberto Tavares gets picked when it counts
- The dugout Ovidiu Marin knocks on the manager’s door
- Market The Nikita Stoinov talk will not go away
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Vlad Chiriches