The Montana Gazette
Squad15 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dimitar Tsvetanov
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Montana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Nov 2027
Ivan Vasilev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Montana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Vasil Simeonov 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 Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Montana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Montana count the cost of losing Alen Vardanyan
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Rúben Gonçalves
“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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
A test against the best for Montana
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Cherno More.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Ivan Kokonov faces his old club
Cherno More next, and one man in the Montana dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Borislav Nikolov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Montana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
- Market Vasil Simeonov linked with a move away
- Market The shop window has Vasil Simeonov in it
- The dugout The manager makes Albin Linnér a promise