37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CS Tunari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
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.
Nobody at CS Tunari 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.
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 7.04 for the rest of 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 CS Tunari 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.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Domagoj Marušić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
0‑3 to CSM Slatina, 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.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 8 of the 38 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
Dragoş Albu 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the CS Tunari dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
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 7.61 for the rest of it.
Dragoş Albu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Domagoj Marušić. 3‑1 against FC Bacău, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. FC Bacău tried to reorganise, CS Tunari did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CS Tunari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari 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 Domagoj Marušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Ivan Skoko, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nicusor Mitrita chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Concordia Chiajna next, and one man in the CS Tunari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CS Tunari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CS Tunari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dragoş Albu 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 has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nicusor Mitrita chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
CS Afumați next, and one man in the CS Tunari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CS Tunari 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.
Gabi Iancu 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Pop 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CS Tunari will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.