“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 The request is on a desk at CSM Reșița, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filip Mikeš will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSM Reșița the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with FC Bihor Oradea 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Reșița this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 The request is on a desk at CSM Reșița, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSM Reșița they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vlad Chera commits to CSM Reșița for another 3 years.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Popescu 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
The name of Antoni Bałabuch has come up in conversations CSM Reșița were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Reșița this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 May 2030
Mihai Popescu 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.
He is 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gui Silva. 2‑0 against Gloria Bistrița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSM Reșița 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 CSM Reșița this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Mihai Popescu 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. Petrolul Ploiești have kept their man, and CSM Reșița go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marius Cioiu. 2‑0 against CS Dinamo Bucharest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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. CSM Reșița will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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; CSM Reșița are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSM Reșița they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Robert Popa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Marius Cioiu 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mihai Nita after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSM Reșița is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at CSM Reșița can tell you which week it ends in.
Marius Cioiu 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 Mihai Popescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marius Cioiu 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 Nov 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Popescu 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSM Reșița is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Robert Popa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Popescu 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gui Silva, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
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 Nita to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Richard Ebiwari obliged against Sepsi OSK. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CSM Reșița.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Kiki Afonso scored in the 89th minute, Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț had already begun thinking about the journey home, and CSM Reșița took the lot.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikola Lakić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSM Reșița the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Robert Popa 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 Oct 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Cioiu 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.
He is 21 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSM Reșița can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSM Reșița is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Mihai Popescu 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 Marius Cioiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSM Reșița can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Robert Popa 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 Mihai Popescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSM Reșița can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Universitatea Craiova keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Marius Cioiu 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.
CSM Reșița asked and UTA Arad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSM Reșița will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 CSM Reșița, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Reșița this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Popescu 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. FC Argeș have kept their man, and CSM Reșița go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
CSM Reșița have made the call to Oțelul Galați. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSM Reșița have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSM Reșița will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Petrolul Ploiești for Robert Popa 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, wages agreed, and Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSM Reșița is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part 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 CSM Reșița this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Cioiu 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSM Reșița can pretend not to have heard.
Eddy Gnahoré 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Claudiu Micovschi 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paul Deac after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSM Reșița they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Chindriş 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at CSM Reșița is running low.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jullian Lassablière will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSM Reșița the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSM Reșița told Meriton Korenica something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Saraiva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSM Reșița the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Meriton Korenica 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Claudiu Micovschi. 2‑1 against Voluntari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
200 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.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSM Reșița lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSM Reșița is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Eddy Gnahoré 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Claudiu Micovschi 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CSM Reșița know it.
“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.
Nobody at CSM Reșița 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 words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSM Reșița they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Eddy Gnahoré 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.
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.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Paul Deac was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the CSM Reșița dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kiki Afonso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Eddy Gnahoré 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.
“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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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 Paul Deac left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Ilija Mašić
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ilija Mašić has come out of that comparison in the side, and CSM Reșița have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Patrik Hidi 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSM Reșița told Giovanni Petcu something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Vlad Chera is on it.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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 0‑2 Paul Deac left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alexandre 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.
6 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Saraiva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSM Reșița the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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. 16 actions, 7.15, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Reșița this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at CSM Reșița training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Alexandre 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSM Reșița has been clear about where Danylo Arkusha stands, which is more than many ever get.