30 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levski is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Levski. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Marked 8.52 — 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Marek spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Terentjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.09. 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Levski hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levski, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 goals in 10 games at Spartak Pleven — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Levski updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Levski they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Serginho 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Mlakar 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.
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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Aldair Faustino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Levski can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Levski have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mustapha Sangaré provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sasho Grancharov did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Viktor Lyubenov, marked 7.44, 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Boris Krstić is living that version at Levski, and it tends to show in the first month.
The name of Aldair Faustino has come up in conversations Levski were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Maicon 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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Boris Krstić is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Terentjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Levski 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.
The deal with Púchov is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Everton Bala. 2‑0 against Yantra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Terentjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Levski told Marko Grujić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The offer went to Púchov this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Levski asked and Randers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 19 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.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
CSKA Sofia paid $2.9M and Levski took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Marko Grujić 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.
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.
Levski asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kristian Iliev 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. Kiril Mihaylov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Plamen Kraev 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levski people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Levski, and it is not being withdrawn.
$740.0K on the table at Lokomotiv Plovdiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Serginho 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armstrong Oko-Flex 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levski is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Levski offered $790.0K; Lokomotiv Plovdiv said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Levski asked and Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 phone has started ringing about Reinaldo again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Levski are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sportist Svoge waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Levski is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Levski have gone to Lokomotiv Plovdiv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Chernomorets Burgas wanted more than $1.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Levski may not be able to give Maicon what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Maicon wants continental football; whether Levski can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicon 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Levski have had the benefit of it.
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.
21 games and 5 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
12 new faces, and Levski 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.
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 Serginho is on it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Christian Makoun may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
The dugoutAkram Bouras knocks on the manager's door
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tomáš Vaclík will call it something else in private.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Marko Grujić's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stanimir Delev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Serginho 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 Mazire Soula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Serginho is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Grujić signs something — a contract at Levski or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kaloyan Kostov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Serginho 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 Apr 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mazire Soula 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Levski know it.
Nobody at Levski 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Levski know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levski, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levski people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Serginho 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Mazire Soula 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 at Levski 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.
Tomáš Vaclík 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mazire Soula 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
Marko Grujić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
The offer from Valerenga for Everton Bala 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.
Serginho 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Everton Bala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
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 Tomáš Vaclík.
A goal on 90 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Levski 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.
The offer from CSKA Sofia for Mustapha Sangaré 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.
7.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Levski close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
CSKA Sofia paid $180.0K and Levski took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mazire Soula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Denis Terentjev 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sheffield Wednesday had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Casa Pia for Serginho 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.
“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 Levski, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serginho provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ludogorets scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
9 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levski this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Levski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicon 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serginho. 2‑0 against Beroe, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serginho provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Levski. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Maicon and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mazire Soula 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.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levski can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 20 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.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. FC Annecy moved on, Christian Makoun reports back to Levski, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Levski heard it as anything else.
Álex Centelles 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia La Plata have kept their man, and Levski go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
“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 Levski, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levski people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Everton Bala reports back to Levski with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1 for Serginho, marked 7.86, 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.