Marked for Adel Bettaieb
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Metalul Buzău, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Valentin Robu to FCSB has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Metalul Buzău with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Adel Bettaieb 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Pellegrini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Mamadu Silla
“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.
Market14 Sep 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Metalul Buzău, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from FCSB for Valentin Robu 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Metalul Buzău do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florin Borţa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Răzvan Milea beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mario Salka 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The afternoon belonged to Andrei Ivan
A mark of 7.77, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Metalul Buzău
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Olimpia Satu Mare, 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
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metalul Buzău can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metalul Buzău have done the hard part with FC Bihor Oradea, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalul Buzău this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Metalul Buzău asked and Unirea Slobozia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 23 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Florin Borţa gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Andrei Ivan
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. Metalul Buzău will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Dănuţ Oprea pops up at the right end — 7.73
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $22.8K — a club that wants Alexandru Luca enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Adel Bettaieb 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Metalul Buzău have gone to Hermannstadt 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Metalul Buzău spend $2.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.1M for Andrei Ivan, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Ivan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Valentin Robu scored in the 87th minute, FC Bihor Oradea had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Metalul Buzău took the lot.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Adel Bettaieb gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adel Bettaieb has just signed for Metalul Buzău, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$2.1M on the table at Panserraikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Both jobs done by Davide Jozić — 7.13
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. 18 actions, 7.13, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Sassuolo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Adel Bettaieb and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mamadu Silla and Metalul Buzău agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florin Borţa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.