Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dimitar Todorov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Marek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marek this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Marek are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Slav Petkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Martin Ganchev is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Marek. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Deyan Lozev 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Fratria next, and one man in the Marek dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marek know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Marek will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Marek until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Deyan Lozev 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.
Marek asked and Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.78 for the rest of it.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Dzhuneyt Ali 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Emil Milanov could afford to be generous.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Toni Ivanov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Belasitsa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
1 for Petar Kazakov, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Vladimir Mendes 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Dyulgerov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Statev, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Emil Milanov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belasitsa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Krasimir Todorov 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.
A mark of 7.83, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Emil Milanov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Arhan Isuf's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
1 for Petar Kazakov, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Hristiyan Vasilev 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
8.21. 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody at Belasitsa saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Dyulgerov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and Belasitsa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HB Køge have kept their man, and Belasitsa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Viktor Ergin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Defensores Unidos have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Hevertton and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Belasitsa and Ludogorets II, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Dyulgerov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Dyulgerov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and Belasitsa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Belasitsa know it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eder Januário is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Add another name to the list: Dunav Ruse have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Anton Karachanakov. The answer from Belasitsa has not changed — yet.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Dyulgerov 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Giannis Sotirakos is living that version at Belasitsa, and it tends to show in the first month.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giannis Sotirakos and Belasitsa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Dyulgerov 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.
Belasitsa asked and Fratria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Belasitsa, another week without a signature from Hristiyan Vasilev.
Belasitsa have made the call to Botev Plovdiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hristiyan Vasilev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Belasitsa have had the benefit of it.
Hristiyan Vasilev 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.
Nobody at Belasitsa 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Stefan Statev has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aleksandar Yakimov is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Belasitsa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belasitsa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Hristiyan Vasilev 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Belasitsa, another week without a signature from Vladimir Mendes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belasitsa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Belasitsa 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.
Individual work, away from the group, aimed at one specific thing the coaches think is holding him back. It rarely makes the news and it is how most improvement actually happens.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Dyulgerov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Krasimir Miloshev signs something — a contract at Belasitsa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Belasitsa 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.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Anton Karachanakov is 35, with 260 appearances behind him, and Belasitsa will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Dyulgerov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad29 Mar 2027
7 new faces, and Belasitsa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Georgi Karakashev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hristiyan Vasilev signs something — a contract at Belasitsa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aleksandar Yakimov is on it.
1 for Dzhuneyt Ali, marked 7.53, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Hristiyan Vasilev 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
He is 20, and nobody at Belasitsa signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Marked 7.64. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad1 Mar 2027
6 new faces, and Belasitsa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eder Januário is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aleksandar Angelov has just signed for Belasitsa, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chernomorets Burgas have kept their man, and Belasitsa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Dyulgerov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Nobody at Belasitsa 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aleksandar Dyulgerov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Belasitsa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belasitsa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Hristiyan Vasilev 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Emil Milanov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Belasitsa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Hristiyan Vasilev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Petar Kazakov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Belasitsa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belasitsa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A side in position 5 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Belasitsa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Belasitsa told Cauê Caruzo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ludogorets II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Krasimir Todorov signs something — a contract at Belasitsa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhuneyt Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Belasitsa saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Karachanakov and Belasitsa agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
7.24, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Belasitsa had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Emil Milanov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Belasitsa dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belasitsa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Belasitsa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Dyulgerov 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.
“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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Emil Milanov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Belasitsa dressing room was either.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Dunav Ruse next, and one man in the Belasitsa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.