Marked for Devis Epassy
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Raul Opruţ 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Petrolul, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Looking ahead9 Nov 2026
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. FCSB on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The form table has caught Devis Epassy
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nicusor Mihaila on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Dinamo Bucharest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Stoinov 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.
Squad2 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 Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 1‑2 Nicusor Mihaila left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Raul Opruţ makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Duţu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Raul Opruţ 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 Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cătălin Cîrjan 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Dinamo Bucharest had all but put away. CFR Cluj will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match24 Oct 2026
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Dinamo Bucharest 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Devis Epassy dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Lisandru Olmeta
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 51. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Raul Opruţ 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 Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Sep 2026
Position 5, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad28 Sep 2026
7 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marius Puscas and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Lisandru Olmeta
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nicusor Mihaila chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Nikita Stoinov out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Bucharest will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Raul Opruţ and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Dinamo Bucharest training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthias Verreth 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicusor Mihaila after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Devis Epassy
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Matteo Duţu
“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.