The phone has started ringing about Andrey Grozdanov again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Septemvri are listening politely and promising nothing.
Robin Schouten 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
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kubrat Onasci 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 ratings16 Aug 2038
Viktor Dobrev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.95. 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.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Septemvri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Dinamo Zagreb kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Septemvri will be asked about the last half hour all week.
3‑4 away to the standard of Dinamo Zagreb. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivan Nedelkov did not need any: 8.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Septemvri they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Septemvri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Septemvri will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Septemvri have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
2‑3 away to the standard of Dinamo Zagreb. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivan Nedelkov did not need any: 8.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Momchil Stoyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Septemvri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marked 8.69 — 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 words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Septemvri will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivan Nedelkov did not need any: 8.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
122 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Septemvri and Dobrudzha, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings8 Feb 2038
Kubrat Onasci was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. 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.
At 20 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.
Galin Sarmov damages knee ligaments — 117 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
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.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kubrat Onasci 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Dobrudzha will make the call about Andrey Grozdanov this week. Septemvri have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Kubrat Onasci was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Noel Gustavsson Engdahl and Septemvri agree another 2 years.
Galin Sarmov damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
The offer from Lokomotiv Sofia for Ventsi Kraev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Septemvri have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Kubrat Onasci 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Septemvri who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Septemvri pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Septemvri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Dec 2037
Ivan Nedelkov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.51
A mark of 8.51 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Septemvri they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kubrat Onasci 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.
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.
At 20 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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Krasian Kolev
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Septemvri rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Brondby had no answer to any of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrey Grozdanov provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivan Nedelkov did not need any: 8.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.70 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Momchil Stoyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Septemvri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrey Grozdanov. 4‑3 against Brondby, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
1‑3 against Aston Villa. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Kubrat Onasci 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Kubrat Onasci was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.24. 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.
0‑2 to Asteras, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Viktor Dobrev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Dobrudzha held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Septemvri answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Krasian Kolev
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Septemvri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivan Nedelkov did not need any: 8.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Kubrat Onasci 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 ratings21 Sep 2037
Kubrat Onasci was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Nedelkov 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.