Marked for Baptiste Roux
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 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 Universitatea Craiova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Alexandru Creţu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universitatea Craiova 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Steven Nsimba’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Luca Băsceanu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Unirea Slobozia, position 11, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
8 starts and a season average of 6.46. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over ASA Târgu Mureș, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Sebastian Şerban, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nicuşor Bancu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
7 matches without defeat, and then Rapid Bucharest. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Match17 Oct 2026
Rapid Bucharest left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces19 Oct 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Răzvan Sava
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Baptiste Roux at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Universitatea Craiova.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Oct 2026
Position 2, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Universitatea Craiova.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nicuşor Bancu retires from international football
“54 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 34 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at Universitatea Craiova.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Denis Radu makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Paul Balasa could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 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 Universitatea Craiova can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$4.7M on the table at CFR Cluj. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
So close: Silviu Lung’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. FCSB moved on, Silviu Lung reports back to Universitatea Craiova, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $235.0K — a club that wants Cristian Ponde enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Universitatea Craiova have gone to Unirea Slobozia 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corvinul Hunedoara have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 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 Universitatea Craiova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
Sabah come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Universitatea Craiova did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Rapid Bucharest wanted more than $1.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad31 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 Universitatea Craiova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Paul Balasa on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.