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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Afumați this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCSB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Miculescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at FCSB 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Tino Kadewere has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Oțelul Galați next, and one man in the FCSB dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
1 for Yassine El Ouatki, marked 7.61, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
1‑3 to CSM Reșița, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at CS Afumați training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yassine El Ouatki 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Afumați this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yassine El Ouatki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
169% of the income goes out in wages at CS Afumați
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the CS Afumați dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CS Afumați, another week without a signature from Jayson Papeau.
The dugout2 Nov 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 1‑4 Adrian Chiriches left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑4 against FC Bihor Oradea, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Adrian Chiriches to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CS Afumați told Lukáš Němec something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alin Lazăr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with CSM Slatina the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that CS Afumați will enjoy reviewing.
1 for Yassine El Ouatki, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
CS Afumați asked and Zurich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one CS Afumați will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Everything was agreed with another club and then the doctor spoke. CS Afumați have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CS Afumați have done the hard part with Pirin Blagoevgrad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Argeș is saying, and nobody at CS Afumați is enjoying the guessing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yassine El Ouatki and CS Afumați agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Daniel Şerbănică 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bylis have kept their man, and CS Afumați go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1‑4 to Corvinul Hunedoara, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
9 seasons and 163 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hermannstadt have kept their man, and CS Afumați go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and CS Afumați know which stage they are at.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the CS Afumați dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Still no offer on the table, and Andrei Florescu’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.