“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 The request is on a desk at Universitatea Craiova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Mihai Ratiu could afford to be generous.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The offer from Obolon for Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CFR Cluj moved on, Steven Nsimba reports back to Universitatea Craiova, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
5 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandru Iamandache will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Universitatea Craiova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CFR Cluj waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
CFR Cluj will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Universitatea Craiova were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Universitatea Craiova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Universitatea Craiova asked and Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Wouter Goes 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Carlos Mora 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olimpia Satu Mare waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from CFR Cluj for Steven Nsimba 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandru Iamandache will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Universitatea Craiova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
1‑4 to Petrolul Ploiești, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brahima Doukansy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Universitatea Craiova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
The name of Ştefan Bodişteanu has come up in conversations Universitatea Craiova were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Carlos Mora 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.
1‑2 away to the standard of PSV. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandru Iamandache will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Universitatea Craiova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Baptiste Roux will call it something else in private.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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 Universitatea Craiova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brahima Doukansy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Universitatea Craiova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Universitatea Craiova did not have in the autumn.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Carlos Mora 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Universitatea Craiova has been clear about where Oleksandr Romanchuk stands, which is more than many ever get.
Moonga Simba 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicuşor Bancu is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitatea Craiova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Steven Nsimba was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Universitatea Craiova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑0 against Borussia Dortmund, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Tudor Băluţă was at the centre of the description.
Hermannstadt will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Universitatea Craiova were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Universitatea Craiova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brahima Doukansy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Universitatea Craiova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nicuşor Bancu 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 ratings8 Nov 2027
Steven Nsimba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.25. 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.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Universitatea Craiova heard it as anything else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Robert Petculescu and Universitatea Craiova agree another 5 years.
Robert Petculescu 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Something was said to Ştefan Bodişteanu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Universitatea Craiova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
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 Mihai Ratiu to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Universitatea Craiova has been clear about where Nikita Vershinin stands, which is more than many ever get.
2‑2. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Universitatea Craiova came through the finding-out well against LASK.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Steven Nsimba takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Steven Nsimba provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Universitatea Craiova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Steven Nsimba has his answer from Universitatea Craiova; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Steven Nsimba. 2‑0 against Dinamo Bucharest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsTudor Băluţă was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Universitatea Craiova ran out of time with Rayo Vallecano. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The offer from Veres for Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Wouter Goes delivers — 7.92
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Wouter Goes scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
Rayo Vallecano have accepted the money. What Universitatea Craiova do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
12 in and 22 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Răzvan Sava and Universitatea Craiova agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 4 players sit outside all 5 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
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.
“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.
Universitatea Craiova offered $62.0K; Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitatea Craiova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Sepsi OSK spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Up for the corner, and Tudor Băluţă delivers — 7.69
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tudor Băluţă scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
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.
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.
Universitatea Craiova have made the call to Spartak Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitatea Craiova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Bacău waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
451 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Universitatea Craiova know exactly what they have.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Universitatea Craiova heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Universitatea Craiova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitatea Craiova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CS Afumați had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The chase for Dejan Iliev ended with $300.0K changing hands and Rapid Bucharest out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Darius Fălcuşan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Wouter Goes 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CFR Cluj have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Alexandru Iamandache has come up in conversations Universitatea Craiova were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahima Doukansy 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Universitatea Craiova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Universitatea Craiova has been clear about where Heriberto Tavares stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Steven Nsimba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ştefan Baiaram signs something — a contract at Universitatea Craiova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Simon Elisor has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nikita Vershinin 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexandru Cicâldău is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitatea Craiova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Universitatea Craiova. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Monday Etim’s exile
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.
Sebastian Şerban 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Universitatea Craiova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Steven Nsimba has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandru Creţu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Universitatea Craiova that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Samuel Teles
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahima Doukansy 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.
Bernardo is 20, and Universitatea Craiova have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Universitatea Craiova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Samuel Teles was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market1 Mar 2027
Matei Goga returns from a loan that taught him nothing
1 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Marked 6.56. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Carlos Mora 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Mihai Ratiu could afford to be generous.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSC Dumbrăvița have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
11 combined actions and 7.07. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I did not go to Petrolul Ploiești to sit and watch. I want to come back to Universitatea Craiova and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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 1‑2 Mihai Ratiu left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Brahima Doukansy will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Universitatea Craiova escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brahima Doukansy provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
58 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Tudor Băluţă delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tudor Băluţă scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Universitatea Craiova and Rapid Bucharest, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Universitatea Cluj; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Brahima Doukansy 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 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Universitatea Craiova have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Groningen for Assad Al Hamlawi 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
Transfer targetsThe paperwork begins on Andrei Gorcea
Hermannstadt will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Universitatea Craiova were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Nicuşor Bancu 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 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. David Matei 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Rus 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.
3 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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Petrolul Ploiești to sit and watch. I want to come back to Universitatea Craiova and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mihai Ratiu on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Adrian Rus 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 did not go to Botosani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Universitatea Craiova and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Simon Elisor is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Răzvan Sava is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
4 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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Unirea Slobozia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Carlos Mora 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.
Marked 8.17. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mihai Ratiu could afford to be generous.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nikola Stevanović is on it.
Unirea Slobozia next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“I did not go to Petrolul Ploiești to sit and watch. I want to come back to Universitatea Craiova and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitatea Craiova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Universitatea Craiova. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Steven Nsimba has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brahima Doukansy 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Universitatea Craiova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Adrian Rus 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 did not go to Botosani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Universitatea Craiova and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Universitatea Craiova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Universitatea Craiova will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Monday Etim has written the date down.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Rapid Bucharest moved on, Silviu Lung reports back to Universitatea Craiova, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Tudor Băluţă 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Mora 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Universitatea Craiova, another week without a signature from Steven Nsimba.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Universitatea Craiova prefer.
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $3.2M well is entirely his problem now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Carlos Mora
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Carlos Mora has come out of that comparison in the side, and Universitatea Craiova have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
12 seasons and 424 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ştefan Baiaram and Universitatea Craiova agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Universitatea Craiova, another week without a signature from Steven Nsimba.