Marked for Marko Tomić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jan 2027
16 matches without a win for Montana
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Montana are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Feb 2027
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Montana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Jan 2027
Montana cannot find the net
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market1 Feb 2027
The name of Duván Riascos has come up in conversations Montana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Aleksandar Todorov 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Point won or two lost for Montana?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against CSKA 1948? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Montana
15 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Match25 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Montana
Position 15 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match23 Jan 2027
Montana cannot find the net
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $810.0K sale of Vasil Simeonov
He is going to Ludogorets, the club has $810.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market25 Jan 2027
Ludogorets paid $810.0K and Montana took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jan 2027
14 matches without a win for Montana
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Montana are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted Montana
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Montana can tell you which week it ends in.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market18 Jan 2027
Montana say no — this time
The offer from Botev Plovdiv for Kostadin Iliev 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Todorov 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Lokomotiv Sofia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Angelos Tsingaras. The answer from Montana has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jan 2027
12 matches without a win for Montana
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Montana are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Jan 2027
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Montana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Jan 2027
Montana cannot find the net
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Aleksandar Todorov 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Kostadin Iliev has come up in conversations Montana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Kokonov out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Montana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Nov 2026
Dušan Brković 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 Montana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Dušan Brković: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Montana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match30 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Montana
Position 14 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Montana's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Montana has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
4.74 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Montana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Kokonov out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Montana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Nov 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 Montana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Montana
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Aleksandar Todorov 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
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ivan Kokonov breaks a bone — 101 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Sep 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 Montana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Montana
Position 14 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Montana's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Montana has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Sep 2026
Montana cannot find the net
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Simon Johansson 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
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Kokonov out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Montana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Sep 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 Montana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Montana
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Montana are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a goal for Montana
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ivan Kokonov breaks a bone — 117 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Ludogorets, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Montana can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Sep 2026
Montana say no — this time
The offer from Botev Plovdiv for Vasil Simeonov 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 34 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Montana's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Montana has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
Montana cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ivan Kokonov breaks a bone — 124 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Montana have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Montana
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Montana are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Montana
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alexander Groven 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marko Tomić 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Tomić, and the manager let it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Botev Plovdiv will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Kokonov out for 132 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Montana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Montana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Aleksandar Todorov 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Montana
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
CSKA Sofia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Montana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Tomás Azevedo goes up and wins it — 7.70
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.70 for the rest of it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Aleksandar Todorov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Tomás Azevedo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Montana.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Montana are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market17 Aug 2026
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market17 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Montana
Michał Bojdys arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Aleksandar Todorov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Tomić 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simon Johansson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.34. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Market10 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vasil Simeonov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Montana, another week without a signature from Ivaylo Markov.
Market10 Aug 2026
Nobody at Montana has picked up the phone to Úmaro Baldé
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.