Marked for Alexandru Gîţ
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Aug 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandru Gîţ
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botosani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces2 Aug 2032
Anger at Botosani spills outside the ground
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.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
FCSB have accepted the money. What Botosani do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Botosani have done the hard part with Tirana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad2 Aug 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucas De Vega commits to Botosani for another 2 years.
Match31 Jul 2032
Petrolul left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
Botosani asked and OGC Nice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings2 Aug 2032
Alexandru Bota was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandru Gîţ
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botosani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jul 2032
A fracture rules Andrei Dumiter out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botosani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
A brace, and Alexandru Bota takes the afternoon — 9.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandru Bota provided it, and the 9.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Jul 2032
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
The clubs have shaken hands with FCSB; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match24 Jul 2032
It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
Hervin Ongenda, 37, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
Everything agreed with Universitatea Craiova, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Răzvan Creţ 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandru Gîţ
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botosani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Jul 2032
30 days out for Andrei Dumiter after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Botosani will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market19 Jul 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botosani can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Niko Mandić is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Words exchanged at Botosani
Răzvan Creţ 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2032
8 academy graduates step up at Botosani
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bucharest have kept their man, and Botosani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Jul 2032
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Adrian Puscas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market19 Jul 2032
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Razvan Maxim has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Botosani
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Ciprian Maxim breaks a bone — 36 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Feb 2032
Alexis Coman hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botosani can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Window shuts: 0 in, 2 out at Botosani
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Botosani
Bryan Meyo 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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Botosani
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihael Onişa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
The clock did what FCSB would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
Alexandru Gîţ without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Alexandru Gîţ was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Nov 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match1 Nov 2031
No end in sight to Botosani's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Botosani has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giannis Anestis and Botosani agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Nov 2031
A falling-out at Botosani
Bryan Meyo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at Botosani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Onişa 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 dugout3 Nov 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Djibril Diaw, and the manager let it.
Match1 Nov 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“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.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
Vlad Man is still paying for one afternoon at Botosani
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Botosani
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Botosani is running low.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Window shuts: 0 in, 1 out at Botosani
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
Everything agreed with CFR Cluj, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad3 Feb 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hervin Ongenda and Botosani agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Răzvan Creţ in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botosani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Feb 2031
A row about effort at Botosani
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihael Onişa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
Botosani ran out of time with FCSB. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
Alexandru Gîţ without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Alexandru Gîţ was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.