Marked for Sergiu Coman
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Aug 2038
A fracture rules Néstor Boretto out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match28 Aug 2038
4‑1, and Ignazio Brambilla took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Astra tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
Two goals and a mark of 9.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match28 Aug 2038
Nobody wants to play Astra right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Squad30 Aug 2038
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
A performance of 9.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
Ninety minutes of Sergiu Coman at his very best
Marked 8.79. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings23 Aug 2038
Age has not caught Andres Sfaiţ yet — 8.62
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market23 Aug 2038
Felipe Marín 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 Astra can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings23 Aug 2038
Up for the corner, and Can Bartu Çığır delivers — 7.22
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Can Bartu Çığır scored, was marked 7.22, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad23 Aug 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad23 Aug 2038
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.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Adrian Mazilu 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.
Match21 Aug 2038
Petrolul made Astra work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Aug 2038
Ninety minutes of Adrian Mazilu at his very best
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Aug 2038
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings16 Aug 2038
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.73 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adam Lobotka is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match14 Aug 2038
CFR Cluj made Astra work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Aug 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.70, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Aug 2038
Adrian Mazilu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market16 Aug 2038
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignazio Brambilla signs something — a contract at Astra or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market9 Aug 2038
Adam Lobotka 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 Astra can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Aug 2038
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Aug 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tiago Dantas and Astra agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match7 Aug 2038
The wait goes on for Astra
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings9 Aug 2038
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Aug 2038
Astra are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match7 Aug 2038
Sergiu Coman scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Viitorul, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sergiu Chiriches
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Oct 2037
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match2 Nov 2037
Astra refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match31 Oct 2037
Astra cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings2 Nov 2037
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market2 Nov 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Astra is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Sergiu Coman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Gabriel David
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Match12 Sep 2037
It finished 5‑3, and it was Andres Sfaiţ’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Astra.
Match12 Sep 2037
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Astra and Pandurii in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vlad Puscas 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 ratings14 Sep 2037
Ninety minutes of Andres Sfaiţ at his very best
Marked 9.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Sergiu Coman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Ninety minutes of Adrian Mazilu at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2037
A fracture rules Ştefan Târnovanu out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Sep 2037
A one-man rearguard from Adam Mouak
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market7 Sep 2037
“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 Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Adrian Mazilu in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad7 Sep 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mariano Bracamonte and Astra agree another 2 years.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
Marked 9.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match5 Sep 2037
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
The one thing Adrian Mazilu could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2037
A fracture rules Ştefan Târnovanu out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Market31 Aug 2037
Only the photograph left for Emerick Lopes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emerick Lopes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astra the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Aug 2037
Astra are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Mazilu 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Tiago Dantas 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.
Match29 Aug 2037
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
The one thing Adrian Mazilu could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2037
A fracture rules Ştefan Târnovanu out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Match15 Aug 2037
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Astra and Petrolul in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match15 Aug 2037
Petrolul made Astra work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Mazilu 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 2037
Ninety minutes of Andres Sfaiţ at his very best
Marked 9.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astra.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad17 Aug 2037
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Aug 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Adrian Tanase damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Match1 Aug 2037
Chastening afternoon for Astra
A 1‑5 beating by Viitorul was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad3 Aug 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Astra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Aug 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Astra is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match1 Aug 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Astra and Viitorul, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom3 Aug 2037
Doors closed at Astra
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
The one thing Adrian Mazilu could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Jun 2037
Adrian Tanase damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Boardroom1 Jun 2037
Astra are in Europe
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Market1 Jun 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astra can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jun 2037
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Astra will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad1 Jun 2037
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.
Boardroom1 Jun 2037
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad1 Jun 2037
65 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market1 Jun 2037
Sergiu Coman returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Market1 Jun 2037
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lucas Beltrán has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Astra.
In brief
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Market
Experience through the door at Astra
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Boardroom
The Astra production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 May 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adrian Tanase
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 May 2037
A fracture rules Tiago Dantas out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 May 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Apr 2037
Tiago Dantas breaks a bone — 57 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Mazilu 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Mar 2037
Ianis Stanciu breaks a bone — 83 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Mazilu 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Mar 2037
David Matei 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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Mihnea Rădulescu 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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergiu Coman, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Feb 2037
30 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad23 Feb 2037
A one-man rearguard from Răzvan Sava
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match18 Feb 2037
Viitorul go through and Universitatea Craiova go home, 5‑6 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
A brace, and Ciprian Nita takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ciprian Nita provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad23 Feb 2037
David Matei 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 Universitatea Craiova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Words at Universitatea Craiova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihnea Rădulescu 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 ratings23 Feb 2037
Ninety minutes of David Matei at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Universitatea Craiova.
Match18 Feb 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 11 goals between Universitatea Craiova and Viitorul, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad23 Feb 2037
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Feb 2037
Vlad Puscas breaks a bone — 55 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Leon Špoljarić: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Astra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jan 2037
“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 Universitatea Craiova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Jan 2037
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad12 Jan 2037
David Matei 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 Jan 2037
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Dorin Nedelcearu is a Universitatea Craiova player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Mihnea Rădulescu 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.
Squad12 Jan 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Siyabonga Ngezana, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jan 2037
Vlad Puscas breaks a bone — 100 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Can Bartu Çığır damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Squad5 Jan 2037
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Astra will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market5 Jan 2037
“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 Astra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jan 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ştefan Târnovanu commits to Astra for another 2 years.
Market5 Jan 2037
Add another name to the list: Universitatea Craiova have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sergiu Coman. The answer from Astra has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Nov 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match8 Nov 2036
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Ovidiu Keseru breaks a bone — 112 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Ianis Stanciu is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.59 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match8 Nov 2036
Astra cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad10 Nov 2036
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.
Match8 Nov 2036
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Astra and Botosani in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
Adrian Mazilu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Oct 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match25 Oct 2036
4‑0, and Sergiu Coman took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Astra tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad27 Oct 2036
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.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Adrian Mazilu 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.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
Marked 9.31 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Ianis Stanciu is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.42 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces27 Oct 2036
Astra supporters have found a favourite in Sergiu Coman
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sergiu Coman has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Oct 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
Gabriel David, 33, rolls back the years — 8.59
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.59 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Tempers go at Astra
Mariano Bracamonte 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.
Match18 Oct 2036
Gabriel David among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Gabriel David on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Astra and Petrolul.
Match18 Oct 2036
Gabriel David scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to Petrolul, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Words at Astra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Mazilu 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.
Squad20 Oct 2036
“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 ratings20 Oct 2036
Marked 8.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The terraces20 Oct 2036
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.