Marked for Patrick Luan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match9 Jan 2027
At last: Arda win one
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market11 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Panathinaikos is saying, and nobody at Arda is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Arda asked and Lokomotiv Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market11 Jan 2027
Lachezar Kotev is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arda has been clear about where Lachezar Kotev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match9 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dominik Yankov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arda.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Arda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Vutov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
7 matches without a win for Arda
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Arda are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.85, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.34 — 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Mesut Yusuf 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 Arda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
João Simões 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“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 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Chavdar Despodov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win for Arda
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Arda are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beroe take the points off Arda
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anatoli Gospodinov, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Arda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Vutov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 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 Chavdar Despodov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Viktor Popov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Arda 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for João Simões
Nobody at Arda is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Septemvri in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Dec 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Arda
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Arda are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Viktor Popov and Arda agree another 4 years.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Botev Plovdiv, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to João Simões, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Arda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ardile Traoré 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“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
Crisis
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Patrick Luan
“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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Arda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Vutov 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Chavdar Despodov to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
João Simões 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.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
Botev Plovdiv next, and one man in the Arda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market30 Nov 2026
The name of Stanislav Ivanov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Arda say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Lachezar Kotev pops up at the right end — 7.89
7.89, 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Lachezar Kotev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arda.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Arda support went home talking about one name.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Arda
Emil Viyachki 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
International break empties Arda
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout16 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Chavdar Despodov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout16 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Antonio Vutov 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.
Match9 Nov 2026
Halfway: Arda sit in position 8
20 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arda told Patrick Luan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Arda
Mesut Yusuf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than João Simões
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Chavdar Despodov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Arda dressing room was either.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Slavia Sofia came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match31 Oct 2026
Cherno More made Arda work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Arda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Vutov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Astra to sit and watch. I want to come back to Arda and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Martin Paskalev
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Viktor Popov moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Arda than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Arda lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.40, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 3‑1 win over Botev Vratsa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market26 Oct 2026
Patrick Luan is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arda has been clear about where Patrick Luan stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout26 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Patrick Luan beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Arda 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
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arda told Ivan Turitsov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Oct 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Arda
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Arda can tell you which week it ends in.
Match17 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Arda against Dobrudzha
0‑1 to Dobrudzha, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Antonio Vutov 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Chavdar Despodov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The form table has caught João Simões
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Arda
Something was said to Birsent Karagaren and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Ardile Traoré
“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
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
4 Arda players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Patrick Luan asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
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
A promise honoured at Arda
Something was said to Serkan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Match10 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Arda?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Spartak 1918? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Patrick Luan keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Arda say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
João Simões gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.30 on the card, and the Arda support went home talking about one name.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Patrick Luan
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Antonio Vutov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Antonio Vutov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Arda have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Lachezar Kotev. Arda will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Chavdar Despodov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
João Simões left out for tactical reasons at Arda
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
Three points for Arda, 1‑0 the final word against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Arda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Vutov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Antonio Vutov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Amílcar Silva
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. Arda will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Arda
Emil Viyachki 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Arda
10 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The form table has caught Patrick Luan
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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Chavdar Despodov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Luan, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Arda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Vutov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Arda
Mesut Yusuf 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
No place in the plan for João Simões
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Georgi Nikolov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
No mercy from Arda
Septemvri will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Arda were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match12 Sep 2026
At last: Arda win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Septemvri. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ardile Traoré pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Sep 2026
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Patrick Luan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiv Plovdiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 Aug 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 Arda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Arda
5 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a goal for Arda
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Dobrudzha paid $35.0K and Arda took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Arda asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Arda 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ardile Traoré
“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
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Arda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav Ivanov and Arda agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Arda asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Momchil Nikolov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dragomir Nedelev 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Galin Petrov 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.86 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Arda had the best player on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Arda
Emil Viyachki 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.