Marked for Thomas Dalsgaard
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Luca Florică 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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Julien, and the manager let it.
Market2 Apr 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Corvinul Hunedoara, another week without a signature from Onochie Chukwu.
Squad2 Apr 2035
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Julian Junuzovic is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad2 Apr 2035
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Thomas Dalsgaard is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
Amílcar Silva has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Corvinul Hunedoara 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 dugout2 Apr 2035
Marius Man loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Marius Man's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 2035
Denis Moldovan has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Corvinul Hunedoara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corvinul Hunedoara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Feb 2035
A move Paul King would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paul King is living that version at Corvinul Hunedoara, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces19 Feb 2035
The crowd has taken to Marius Man
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout19 Feb 2035
The manager makes an example of Adrian Mitrita
“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 ratings19 Feb 2035
Marked 7.51. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout19 Feb 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad19 Feb 2035
No place for Tudor Zoicaş in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Corvinul Hunedoara are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Nov 2034
1‑4 against CSC Șelimbăr, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match25 Nov 2034
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Corvinul Hunedoara has to find a result from somewhere.
Match25 Nov 2034
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Thomas Dalsgaard arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thomas Dalsgaard has, at Corvinul Hunedoara, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad27 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corvinul Hunedoara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
Luca Florică 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Appearance number 200 for Luca Florică
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Ianis Spînu 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.
Boardroom27 Nov 2034
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.