The Arda Chronicle
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Steven Petkov
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
David Idowu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Arda 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Svetoslav Kovachev 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 Svetoslav Kovachev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 May 2027
The Dominik Yankov question follows Arda around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dominik Yankov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager makes Martin Paskalev a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad17 May 2027
Dominik Yankov is the talk of the training ground
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
In brief
- Boardroom The Arda board put their names to it
- Squad Deyan Delev is fit again
- Loan watch The clock runs down on Simeon Vasilev at Spartaks