It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CFR Cluj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandru Radu is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Hagi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dorin Chiriches 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrian Păun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every CFR Cluj game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Petrolul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CFR Cluj can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexandru Nita was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the CFR Cluj dressing room was either.
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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. FCSB defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Sheriff Sinyan 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.
Three points for CFR Cluj, 1‑0 the final word against Pandurii in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christopher Braun 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Alibek Aliev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alexandru Nita on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
CFR Cluj had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Empoli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Sheriff Sinyan 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 Adrian Păun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 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 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 dugout21 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.” Alexandru Nita chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alin Fică provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Yuval Sade reports back to CFR Cluj with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Krasnodar is saying, and nobody at CFR Cluj is enjoying the guessing.
$50.0K was the most the club would pay and Botosani were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. CFR Cluj will try again when the window opens; FCSB may not be selling by then.
CFR Cluj asked and Wigan Athletic said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Position 10 and 2 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 CFR Cluj, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$560.0K settles it between the clubs for Răzvan Udrea
FCSB have accepted the money. What CFR Cluj do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around CFR Cluj are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at CFR Cluj 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Botosani moved on, Simão Rocha reports back to CFR Cluj, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
CFR Cluj had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Universitatea Craiova, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Viitorul waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CFR Cluj is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Universitatea Craiova; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
CFR Cluj had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
CFR Cluj asked and Universitatea Craiova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CFR Cluj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
CFR Cluj asked and Astra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Universitatea Craiova for Yuval Sade 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.
CFR Cluj have gone to Astra with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Sheriff Sinyan 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
0‑1 to Dinamo Bucharest, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christopher Braun 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Transfer targetsA loan move for Joe Whitworth is in the works
CFR Cluj asked and Granada said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CFR Cluj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Universitatea Craiova have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yuval Sade. The answer from CFR Cluj has not changed — yet.
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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LA Galaxy have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
CFR Cluj offered $990.0K; Universitatea Craiova said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: La Equidad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Sheriff Sinyan 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.
18 seasons and 512 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
CFR Cluj asked and Dinamo Bucharest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Stefan Dražić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to FCSB, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christopher Braun 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.