Yulian Gilov 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yordan Mihaylov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Septemvri told Zahari Atanasov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
SquadMarto Boychev is the weekend's best young player
Player ratingsFaiz Mattoir beats them one at a time
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stoyan Stoichkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Septemvri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There were 6 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Kubrat Onasci 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.
“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.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
Nobody left the Septemvri 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 0‑3 Yordan Mihaylov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Yulian Gilov 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.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Septemvri lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Septemvri can pretend not to have heard.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Septemvri can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Martín SJ have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Klāvs Bethers is in the works
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Septemvri, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Marto Boychev is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Septemvri know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Aguibou Camara has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 Septemvri know 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 Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Septemvri lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Septemvri, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and André Liberal takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. André Liberal provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Kubrat Onasci 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.
Minute 90, against Levski, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Stipe Vulikić 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Puchetta has, at Septemvri, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
He is 20, and nobody at Septemvri signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Septemvri lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
At 25 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stipe Vulikić, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Hristov 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 dugout19 Oct 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 1‑2 Yordan Mihaylov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Septemvri, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kubrat Onasci is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Petar Debarliev 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yoan Baurenski has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Septemvri, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Marto Boychev is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Martin Hristov has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Septemvri the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stipe Vulikić, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 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 1‑2 Yordan Mihaylov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CS Dinamo Bucharest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Septemvri is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Stoyan Stoichkov reports back to Septemvri with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Septemvri are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Septemvri asked and Morón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Botev Plovdiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Septemvri is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Dunav Ruse paid $72.0K and Septemvri took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Septemvri asked and Beroe 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. André Liberal is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Aguibou Camara'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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kubrat Onasci is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Add another name to the list: Lokomotiv Sofia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martin Hristov. The answer from Septemvri has not changed — yet.
Septemvri asked and Botev Vratsa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
10 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Petar Debarliev knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Etar go through and Septemvri go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Septemvri can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chase for Aguibou Camara ended with $3.7M changing hands and Ludogorets out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Aguibou Camara from Ludogorets for $3.7M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Hebar paid $130.0K and Septemvri took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
SquadWords at Septemvri training over how hard people work
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Septemvri have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Septemvri have gone to Ludogorets 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.
Septemvri have gone to CSKA 1948 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Deyan Kraev 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.
Stipe Vulikić 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 Stefan Stojanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Septemvri asked and AS Trencin 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 Ali Aruna again, and this time the name on the line is Pirin Blagoevgrad. Septemvri are listening politely and promising nothing.