Marked for Matthieu Dreyer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ASA Târgu Mureș lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Bogdan Vătăjelu out for 93 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASA Târgu Mureș will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to ASA Târgu Mureș's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ASA Târgu Mureș has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout22 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market22 Feb 2027
As if he never left: Florin Iacob returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Florin Iacob is a ASA Târgu Mureș player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Robert Filip 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages swallow 97% of the ASA Târgu Mureș income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ASA Târgu Mureș lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Feb 2027
100 days out for Bogdan Vătăjelu after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASA Târgu Mureș will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 Feb 2027
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around ASA Târgu Mureș are no longer polite ones.
Market15 Feb 2027
Add another name to the list: Zorya have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lisandru Olmeta. The answer from ASA Târgu Mureș has not changed — yet.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Robert Filip and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Matthieu Dreyer
“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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.75 on the card, and the ASA Târgu Mureș support went home talking about one name.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and ASA Târgu Mureș will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ciprian Biceanu damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
116 days out for Bogdan Vătăjelu after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASA Târgu Mureș will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ASA Târgu Mureș people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
ASA Târgu Mureș close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to ASA Târgu Mureș's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ASA Târgu Mureș has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Feb 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 ASA Târgu Mureș this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lisandru Olmeta, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ciprian Biceanu
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA Târgu Mureș lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Bogdan Vătăjelu out for 124 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASA Târgu Mureș will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Match23 Jan 2027
0‑3 to Olimpia Satu Mare, 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Etar come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and ASA Târgu Mureș did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 ASA Târgu Mureș, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Valentin Creţu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Filip, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ciprian Biceanu damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Bogdan Vătăjelu out for 132 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASA Târgu Mureș will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Valentin Creţu 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Vlad Bogdan 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ciprian Biceanu
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA Târgu Mureș lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Politehnica Iași for Cristian Măgeruşan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. ASA Târgu Mureș have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Robert Filip 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
3 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over FC Bacău, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match29 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ciprian Biceanu damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Cristian Ciobanu: 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.” ASA Târgu Mureș have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Valentin Creţu 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
The afternoon belonged to George Ganea
A mark of 7.55, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Cosmin Maxim on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Marian Manea
“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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Market14 Dec 2026
The name of Robert Filip keeps appearing in other people's back pages. ASA Târgu Mureș say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
10 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
Ovidiu Horşia has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA Târgu Mureș they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Valentin Creţu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 179% of everything ASA Târgu Mureș earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Matthieu Dreyer
“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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Cosmin Bîrnoi at his very best
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at ASA Târgu Mureș.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sámuel Major was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2026
Position 22, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to ASA Târgu Mureș's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ASA Târgu Mureș has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Robert Filip 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
CSC Șelimbăr left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
The dugout9 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 1‑2 Cosmin Maxim left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sámuel Major was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Larios Romney is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tudor Oltean 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 ASA Târgu Mureș this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad12 Oct 2026
No place for Mamadou Camara in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ASA Târgu Mureș are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Adrian Horşia is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Metalul Buzău next, and one man in the ASA Târgu Mureș dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at ASA Târgu Mureș would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑3 to CSM Slatina, 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Ovidiu Horşia
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ovidiu Horşia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ASA Târgu Mureș the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Robert Filip 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Christ Batola arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christ Batola has, at ASA Târgu Mureș, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
223% of the income goes out in wages at ASA Târgu Mureș
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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tudor Oltean 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. ASA Târgu Mureș will not keep him by pretending otherwise.