Spartak 1918 and CSKA 1948 have settled on $320.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
Minute 93, against Dobrudzha, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartak 1918 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 37 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Boubacar Hanne. 1‑0 against Montana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A mark of 7.88, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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.” Kiril Petkov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak 1918 can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartak 1918 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak 1918 have done the hard part with Levski, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michalis Pardalos and Spartak 1918 agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Georg Stojanovski 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.
Spartak 1918 asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Spartak 1918, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arda have kept their man, and Spartak 1918 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak 1918 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Kiril Petkov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartak 1918 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tsvetelin Chunchukov provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georg Stojanovski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Boubacar Hanne was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Kiril Petkov could afford to be generous.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartak 1918 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Spartak 1918 scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Valeri Bozhinov did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Georg Stojanovski 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 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.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Spartak 1918 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 Spartak 1918 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Levski had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Di Cardoso 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak 1918 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Spartak 1918 asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Georg Stojanovski 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.
“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 Spartak 1918 know it.
Minute 87, against Lokomotiv Sofia, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak 1918 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spartak 1918 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal that would have taken Xande to Montana has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Spartak 1918 with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Spartak 1918 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 Georg Stojanovski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spartak 1918 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Spartak 1918, and it is not being withdrawn.
Spartak 1918 have gone to Levski with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Spartak 1918 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Montana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Xande. The answer from Spartak 1918 has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Damyan Yordanov. 2‑1 against Botev Vratsa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Georg Stojanovski 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak 1918 can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Boubacar Hanne and Spartak 1918 agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel John was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartak 1918 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Spartak 1918, another week without a signature from Petar Vitanov.
Matteo Schiavon 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.
Spartak 1918 have made the call to Ludogorets. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Kostadin Iliev 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.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Spartak 1918 no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tsvetoslav Marinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tsvetelin Chunchukov signs something — a contract at Spartak 1918 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Zakaria Tindano is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
0‑2 to Botev Vratsa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Spartak 1918 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel John 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.