Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilker Budinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Marek the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ilker Budinov 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 Ivan Avramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Roque Maisterra 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.
In brief
The dugoutAnwar Imider knocks on the manager's door
Ilker Budinov 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Avramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Marek, another week without a signature from Ilker Budinov.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marek can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pro Vercelli have kept their man, and Marek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against CSKA Sofia II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Avramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Marek has worked with Ivan Avramov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
He is 22 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Deyan Dimitrov could afford to be generous.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marek lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ilker Budinov 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 new man at Marek has worked with Ivan Avramov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marek lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The shirt still fits. Ivan Avramov is back at Marek, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Əsgər Hüseynov has just signed for Marek, and for once the answer mattered.
The new man at Marek has worked with Ivan Avramov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Marek will try again when the window opens; Cherno More may not be selling by then.
Filippo Rino Bignamini is 19, and Marek have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marek can pretend not to have heard.
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 had been thinking. Ilker Budinov 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.
Marek asked and KAMAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Marek could ask drops and the wages Arhan Isuf can ask rise.
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.
Nobody at Marek 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Marek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marek can pretend not to have heard.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Marek now.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Ilker Budinov 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marek can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilker Budinov 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 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 Roque Maisterra 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Marek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Marek, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marek have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Ilker Budinov 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Marek has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrian Dimitrov signs something — a contract at Marek or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marek lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Marek is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ilker Budinov 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.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Marek can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Mendes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Marek, another week without a signature from Borislav Vakadinov.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marek lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Ilker Budinov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Turan Tovuz have kept their man, and Marek go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Mendes 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.78, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Dimitar Ivanov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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 words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Ilker Budinov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brandon López 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Avramov, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Deyan Dimitrov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marek, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.