Marked for Daniel Bîrligea
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
Basel pay FCSB $4.5M for a proper upgrade
FCSB did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.5M for Daniel Bîrligea, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market17 Aug 2026
Albian Ajeti has left for SC Freiburg in a $3.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market17 Aug 2026
Basel say no — this time
The offer from Vaduz for Mirko Salvi 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Metinho in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Basel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Kaio Eduardo has come up in conversations Basel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Basel spend $4.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.5M for Daniel Bîrligea, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Match15 Aug 2026
Basel cannot find the net
3 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Bećir Omeragić
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Aug 2026
FCSB sell a favourite for $4.5M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Daniel Bîrligea was one of the reasons people came, and $4.5M does not replace that by itself.
Market17 Aug 2026
Basel pay $4.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at FCSB
Juri Cisotti 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and FCSB 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Antonio Milić
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. FCSB will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Astra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and FCSB did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ofri Arad and FCSB agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at FCSB
Juri Cisotti 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Ofri Arad
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ofri Arad, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at FCSB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Milić 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Petrolul leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Daniel Graovac's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Răzvan Udrea has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at FCSB.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juri Cisotti and FCSB agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Juri Cisotti in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months and counting on Juri Cisotti
Still no offer on the table, and Juri Cisotti’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.