Edgar Ié and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Voluntari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radu Crişan 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marius Stanciu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dinamo Bucharest? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Botosani next, and one man in the Voluntari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Voluntari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Šime Gržan 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Šime Gržan, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Voluntari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Radu Crişan 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 4 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Voluntari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Marvin Schieb is on it.
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.
Edgar Ié 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 Dec 2026
Words at Voluntari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvin Schieb 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.
Šime Gržan 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marius Stanciu after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marvin Schieb 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Modou Jarju has, at Voluntari, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Voluntari can tell you which week it ends in.
Šime Gržan 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Edgar Ié 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marius Stanciu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Universitatea Craiova.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mihai Roman’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Voluntari needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Voluntari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
SquadGetting past Metod Jurhar has become the hardest job in the division
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitatea Craiova have kept their man, and Voluntari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at NK Domzale is saying, and nobody at Voluntari is enjoying the guessing.
Šime Gržan 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dragos Moldovan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ianis Bancu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.