Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CS Dinamo Bucharest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Cristian Măgeruşan was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
“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 The request is on a desk at ASA Târgu Mureș, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Voluntari have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Miloš Zukanović. The answer from ASA Târgu Mureș has not changed — yet.
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 4 separate groups, 3 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
18 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at ASA Târgu Mureș, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
ASA Târgu Mureș asked and Chindia Târgoviște said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Serges Ekollo 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.
25 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. ASA Târgu Mureș will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zsombor Demeter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASA Târgu Mureș, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. CS Afumați had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ciprian Biceanu will call it something else in private.
39 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.
Nikola Stevanović 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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 words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Politehnica Iași spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
8.02. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zsombor Demeter was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation ASA Târgu Mureș did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Up for the corner, and Pedro Pinho delivers — 7.65
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pedro Pinho scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ionuţ Cojocaru. 2‑1 against CSM Reșița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ionuţ Cojocaru has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.22. 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Serges Ekollo 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.
Antonio Cruceru 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 dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Florin Coman kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
A 2‑1 win over Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Florin Coman on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marian Manea.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Rui Pacheco
Pedro Pinho 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.
Minute 89, against FC Bihor Oradea, 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. CSC Șelimbăr spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Serges Ekollo 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.
Marked 6.87 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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 award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. ASA Târgu Mureș have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad5 Apr 2027
7 new faces, and ASA Târgu Mureș 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.
“I watch every ASA Târgu Mureș game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CSM Slatina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nikola Stevanović 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. ASA Târgu Mureș told Nikola Stevanović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ASA Târgu Mureș know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sámuel Major trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at ASA Târgu Mureș the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Nikola Stevanović 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ionuţ Cojocaru has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match20 Mar 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for ASA Târgu Mureș. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ciprian Biceanu, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Serges Ekollo 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Something was said to Pedro Pinho and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Antonio Cruceru 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 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Florin Coman could afford to be generous.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.59 for the rest of it.
Tudor Oltean 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Andres Sfaiţ has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. ASA Târgu Mureș told Ionuţ Cojocaru something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and ASA Târgu Mureș are still learning each other
Position 3, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Pedro Pinho 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.05, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.” Florin Coman chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Voluntari? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against CSM Slatina in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
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.
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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
11 combined actions and 6.97. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout15 Feb 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 0‑1 Florin Coman left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
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 instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Sepsi OSK next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
48 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
ASA Târgu Mureș close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 2 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Nikola Stevanović 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mathis Chambon has just signed for ASA Târgu Mureș, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Cojocaru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
ASA Târgu Mureș asked and FCSB said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything agreed with Universitatea Craiova, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.85 beside his name.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.76 beside his name.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Andres Sfaiţ has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Ionuţ Cojocaru’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ASA Târgu Mureș.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
In brief
Boardroom107% of the income goes out in wages at ASA Târgu Mureș
ASA Târgu Mureș had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Astana, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.06, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Zsombor Demeter has his answer from ASA Târgu Mureș; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cristian Măgeruşan provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FCSB is saying, and nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș is enjoying the guessing.
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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Orenburg have kept their man, and ASA Târgu Mureș go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Unirea Slobozia pay $19.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ionuţ Cojocaru has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Position 2, 40 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Everything agreed with Farul Constanța, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serges Ekollo. 2‑0 against FC Bacău, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
Nobody at ASA Târgu Mureș 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.
In brief
The dugoutVlad Bogdan knocks on the manager's door
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Cristian Măgeruşan
Florin Bejan 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian Măgeruşan. 1‑0 against CSC Dumbrăvița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Florin Coman on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. ASA Târgu Mureș would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tudor Oltean 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Politehnica Iași leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Florin Coman was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the ASA Târgu Mureș dressing room was either.
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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Sámuel Major a promise
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ASA Târgu Mureș may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Serges Ekollo 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Cristian Ciobanu 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Raul Rotund
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Raul Rotund has come out of that comparison in the side, and ASA Târgu Mureș have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Florin Coman chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Serges Ekollo 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Florin Coman was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the ASA Târgu Mureș dressing room was either.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
11 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Robert Geantă
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tudor Oltean was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Robert Geantă
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Bihor Oradea 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.
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 Sámuel Major has written the date down.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serges Ekollo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until George Ganea signs something — a contract at ASA Târgu Mureș or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
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.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and CS Dinamo Bucharest had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and ASA Târgu Mureș did not stop to explain themselves.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raul Rotund did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 ASA Târgu Mureș this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tudor Oltean 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.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. ASA Târgu Mureș will try not to make too much of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tudor Oltean 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and ASA Târgu Mureș 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Florin Coman on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vlad Bogdan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
Florin Bejan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 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.
Something was said to Nazar Domchak and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marian Manea’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ASA Târgu Mureș needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASA Târgu Mureș, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
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.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.89 on the card, and the ASA Târgu Mureș support went home talking about one name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Serges Ekollo 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Serges Ekollo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.89, and 2 involvements.
Florin Bejan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Florin Coman on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Florin Bejan 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serges Ekollo. 2‑1 against Chindia Târgoviște, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7.96, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. ASA Târgu Mureș had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Florin Coman, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. ASA Târgu Mureș have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at ASA Târgu Mureș was different afterwards.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raul Rotund did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tudor Oltean was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Florin Coman on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chindia Târgoviște in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at ASA Târgu Mureș until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Rapid Bucharest moved on, Cristian Măgeruşan reports back to ASA Târgu Mureș, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tudor Oltean 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.
Okan Chatziterzoglou 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Okan Chatziterzoglou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Antonio Cruceru 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Florin Coman after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ASA Târgu Mureș can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from CSM Slatina for Cosmin Bîrnoi 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.
Florin Bejan 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian Măgeruşan. 1‑0 against Corvinul Hunedoara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Marked 7.86 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, ASA Târgu Mureș had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Florin Coman, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Serges Ekollo 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.
“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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Corvinul Hunedoara in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
A season-long audition: Slavia Prague still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are ASA Târgu Mureș's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ASA Târgu Mureș can pretend not to have heard.
Florin Bejan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Javor-Matis have kept their man, and ASA Târgu Mureș go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cosmin Mitrita is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Bancu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Florin Puscas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.24 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ciprian Biceanu and ASA Târgu Mureș agree another 2 years.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and ASA Târgu Mureș go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 1‑0 win over Concordia Chiajna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Squad3 Aug 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.