“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Voluntari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Piţian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Răzvan Neag 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 easiest signature of my career.” Bartosz Tomaszewski and Voluntari agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Voluntari will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Radu Crişan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Voluntari needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ion Gheorghe signs something — a contract at Voluntari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 9 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Radu Crişan, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Voluntari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Cvek 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Florin Burca to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Voluntari told George Merloi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Position 10 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ştefan Ioniţă is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Voluntari will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dinamo Bucharest in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrei Piţian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A 2‑0 win over Pandurii, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Remus Guţea, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.21
A mark of 8.21 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astra have kept their man, and Voluntari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Voluntari have done the hard part with Lugano, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
$22.0K was the most the club would pay and Botosani were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexandru Şuteu 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.