Marked for Adrian Moldovan
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 Metalul Buzău this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lucas Pellegrini 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamadu Silla, and the manager let it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Iulian Dinu told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Iulian Dinu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Metalul Buzău.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Steaua Bucharest in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Iulian Dinu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Metalul Buzău 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Deniz Giafer knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metalul Buzău, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Steaua Bucharest, position 13, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Metalul Buzău training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Ivan 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 dugout12 Oct 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Răzvan Radu 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Florin Borţa talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metalul Buzău know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I want to play”: Deniz Giafer speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Adrian Moldovan has written the date down.
Market12 Oct 2026
Metalul Buzău have let the market know Costel Toader can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mamadu Silla is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metalul Buzău can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Adel Bettaieb 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lucas Pellegrini 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 305% of the Metalul Buzău income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to FC Bacău, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 Cosmin Mitrita left the room before anybody could ask which.