Marked for Răzvan Sava
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Universitatea Craiova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑2 to CFR Cluj, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roan Wilson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Simon Elisor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
10 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The team sheet said everything about Adrian Rus
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Adrian Rus.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Adrian Rus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Simon Elisor scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to FCSB, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Răzvan Sava
“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.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
The big one: Astra come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Universitatea Craiova will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Simon Elisor 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The formation has left Bakary Haïdara behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Universitatea Craiova will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match10 Oct 2026
Pandurii will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Universitatea Craiova were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match10 Oct 2026
7 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Simon Elisor takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simon Elisor provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Oct 2026
Position 3, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ştefan Baiaram has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match10 Oct 2026
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Pandurii spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 8.44 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giugliano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Universitatea Craiova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alianza Lima have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
Mihai Mitrita 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 Universitatea Craiova can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
7.96, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Universitatea Craiova had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to CFR Cluj: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Universitatea Craiova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CFR Cluj keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Universitatea Craiova has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Universitatea Craiova asked and Botosani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
Steven Nsimba has left for FCSB in a $730.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Astra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
10 saves: Răzvan Sava was the team
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LA Galaxy have kept their man, and Universitatea Craiova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$3.9M on the table at Rapid Wien. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicuşor Bancu and Universitatea Craiova agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match8 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Pandurii, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Adrian Rus 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 Universitatea Craiova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mihai Chiriches 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
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Mihnea Rădulescu at 20 — 7.94
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mihnea Rădulescu did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad3 Aug 2026
12 seasons and 424 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Universitatea Craiova did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ştefan Baiaram and Universitatea Craiova agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nicuşor Bancu 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Universitatea Craiova asked and KV Oostende said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Răzvan Sava, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.