Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yannick Semedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CFR Cluj the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Miron 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.
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 Tudor Băluţă is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simão Rocha signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CFR Cluj will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 2, 35 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Josip Silić has, at CFR Cluj, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simão Rocha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Simão Rocha is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alin Fică signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CFR Cluj heard it as anything else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simão Rocha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Camora has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yannick Semedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Andrei Miron 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.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CFR Cluj are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. CFR Cluj would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alibek Aliev signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilija Mašić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Andrei Miron has written the date down.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. David Idowu is living that version at CFR Cluj, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simão Rocha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alibek Aliev 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CFR Cluj can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CFR Cluj told David Idowu something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simão Rocha signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Octavian Vâlceanu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adrian Păun and CFR Cluj agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Simão Rocha 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.
Alibek Aliev 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
6 new faces, and CFR Cluj 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.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alin Fică signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Adrian Păun 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 Feb 2028
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrei Miron 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 CFR Cluj 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.
“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 CFR Cluj will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riad Šuta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CFR Cluj has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
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 Simão Rocha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Pandurii scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CFR Cluj will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simão Rocha signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 2 and 35 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
CFR Cluj close the window on a squad of their own making
5 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CFR Cluj hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slovan Bratislava keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Miron was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pandurii have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Adrian Păun 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.
Slovan Bratislava have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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 Andraž Šporar is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CFR Cluj will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Alexandru Creţu is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The offer from FCSB for Ovidiu Perianu 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.
The deal with FCSB is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
CFR Cluj asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Păun 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 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 Alin Fică is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Coman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CFR Cluj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Astra for Ilija Mašić 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdallah Aberkane has just signed for CFR Cluj, and for once the answer mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Ovidiu Perianu again, and this time the name on the line is FCSB. CFR Cluj are listening politely and promising nothing.
CFR Cluj 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Andrei Miron 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.
“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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Universitatea Craiova keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CFR Cluj know it.
A loan enquiry to Universitatea Craiova: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Thomas Davis is in the works
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Camora's mistake
“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.
Add another name to the list: FCSB have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Iva Gelashvili. The answer from CFR Cluj has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Adrian Păun 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.
Dinamo Bucharest have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for David Barbu is in the works
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CFR Cluj can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and CFR Cluj now know that too.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Miron was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Păun 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.
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.
2‑2 against Arouca, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Andraž Šporar was at the centre of the description.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Arouca the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that CFR Cluj will enjoy reviewing.
Position 2, 35 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
At 20 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.
“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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Adrian Păun 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.
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.
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renato Pantalon 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.
Something was said to Daniel Coman and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Coman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 CFR Cluj will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
1‑2 against PAOK. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Alibek Aliev 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 Camora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Claudiu Cicaldau after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Dragos Coman will call it something else in private.
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 Alin Fică is on it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 108th minute. Viitorul will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Position 2 on 35 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
A brace, and Islam Slimani takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Islam Slimani provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CFR Cluj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Riad Šuta 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 Camora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
Position 3, 32 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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CFR Cluj know it.
Minute 96, against Universitatea Craiova, 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.
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.
1‑8. VfL Wolfsburg play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
6 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.
9 goals in one match, Alin Fică on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of CFR Cluj and VfL Wolfsburg.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camora 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CFR Cluj hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
4 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.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camora 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.
“I watch every CFR Cluj game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pandurii runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It needed Alibek Aliev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Dinamo Bucharest, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑5 against VfL Wolfsburg. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CFR Cluj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. CFR Cluj will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Position 2, 29 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.
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.
400 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camora 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.
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.
Alibek Aliev 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Barrios, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 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.” Claudiu Cicaldau kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
0‑0 against Arouca, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CFR Cluj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.97, 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Zoran Mitrov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Andrei Miron
Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
0‑1 against PAOK. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
A 2‑1 win over Voluntari, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camora 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 CFR Cluj pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CFR Cluj heard it as anything else.
At 20 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.
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.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Universitatea Craiova; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Barrios 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.
“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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 11 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.
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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. CFR Cluj will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camora 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
Player ratingsAndrei Cordea was on a different afternoon to everybody else
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrei Cordea beats them one at a time
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.
Three points for CFR Cluj, 1‑0 the final word against Viitorul in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Barrios 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 dugoutIslam Slimani has become a man the manager trusts
55Edition
The CFR Cluj Sentinel
16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Match14 Aug 2027
Alin Fică wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Alin Fică found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Astra went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
CFR Cluj offered $1.7M; Mansfield Town 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.
Three points for CFR Cluj, 2‑1 the final word against Astra in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Păun 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
$1.6M on the table at Mansfield Town. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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: Petrolul have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Costel Avram. The answer from CFR Cluj has not changed — yet.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Astra did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.5M for Daniel Coman, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer from Petrolul for Costel Avram 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 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Maccabi Haifa, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mansfield Town have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation CFR Cluj did not have in the autumn.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
CFR Cluj spend $3.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.5M for Daniel Coman, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zenit is saying, and nobody at CFR Cluj is enjoying the guessing.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
CFR Cluj asked and Wolfsberger AC 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Marius Moldovan 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergiu Ratiu 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marius Mitrita 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ciprian Mihaila 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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cremonese keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The fee is $510.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Universitatea Craiova drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Alibek Aliev 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.
CFR Cluj asked and Mantova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
9 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.
A loan enquiry to Slovan Bratislava: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovidiu Perianu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
“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 deal with Universitatea Craiova is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Alibek Aliev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Adrian Păun has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
CFR Cluj asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bucharest have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Petrolul 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CFR Cluj will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at CFR Cluj is enjoying the guessing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andres Sfaiţ is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tudor Băluţă has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
CFR Cluj 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ferencvaros is saying, and nobody at CFR Cluj is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Add another name to the list: Petrolul have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yuval Sade. The answer from CFR Cluj has not changed — yet.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CFR Cluj has been clear about where Christopher Braun stands, which is more than many ever get.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.5M has been paid because Tudor Băluţă is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The deal with Ferencvaros is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
FCSB wanted more than $260.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
CFR Cluj spend $3.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.5M for Tudor Băluţă, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$3.5M settles it between the clubs for Tudor Băluţă
Universitatea Craiova 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pandurii have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Păun 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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovidiu Perianu 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 loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at CFR Cluj no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Alibek Aliev 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Păun 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.
“I did not go to Universitatea Craiova to sit and watch. I want to come back to CFR Cluj and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 39 matches say the rest.
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 Islam Slimani is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alin Fică signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Alibek Aliev 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 Adrian Păun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Adrian Păun 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.
“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 CFR Cluj will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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 Islam Slimani has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alibek Aliev signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Camora has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ádám Varga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at CFR Cluj than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Sheriff Sinyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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.
“I did not go to Universitatea Craiova to sit and watch. I want to come back to CFR Cluj and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
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 Islam Slimani is on it.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Andres Sfaiţ is on it.
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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Francisco Barrios plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
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.
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.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CFR Cluj. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Position 3, 29 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.
Adrian Păun 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 10 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Simão Rocha is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CFR Cluj know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Alexandru Iamandache has moved up it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilija Mašić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alibek Aliev 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 Francisco Barrios 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 Universitatea Craiova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Islam Slimani is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CFR Cluj will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Alibek Aliev 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alin Fică, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
“I watch every CFR Cluj game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Viitorul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Alexandru Iamandache is on it.
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 Iva Gelashvili has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ádám Varga
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
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 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 10 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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 words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
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.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Adrian Păun 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.
“I watch every CFR Cluj game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Universitatea Craiova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dragos Coman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Deac did not need any: 8.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Deac 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Adrian Păun 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.
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 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.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Petrolul have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Păun 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CFR Cluj know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAndres Sfaiţ has become a man the manager trusts
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pescara keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
“I watch every CFR Cluj game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Viitorul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
In brief
The dugoutRiad Šuta asks for a word with the manager
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CFR Cluj will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CFR Cluj have lost him in all but the paperwork.
CFR Cluj asked and Qarabag said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Barrios 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.
“I did not go to Universitatea Craiova to sit and watch. I want to come back to CFR Cluj and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alin Fică signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CFR Cluj will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
CFR Cluj had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Wigan Athletic, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
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.
Viktoria Plzen have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CFR Cluj, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CFR Cluj. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutVlad Oargă has become a man the manager trusts
146 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CFR Cluj will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botosani have kept their man, and CFR Cluj go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Botosani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Răzvan Gligor. The answer from CFR Cluj has not changed — yet.
Wigan Athletic have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutAndrei Cordea asks for a word with the manager
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CFR Cluj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Universitatea Craiova is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CFR Cluj have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Barrios 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Hajduk Split have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Sheriff Sinyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Adrian Păun 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.
“I watch every CFR Cluj game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Universitatea Craiova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Simão Rocha is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Barrios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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 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 CFR Cluj will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riad Šuta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Vlad Oargă is on it.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CFR Cluj have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Adrian Păun 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 Francisco Barrios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. CFR Cluj will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dragos Coman
The dugoutRiad Šuta asks for a word with the manager
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Alibek Aliev 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 Adrian Păun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at CFR Cluj 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Squad30 Nov 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alin Fică signs something — a contract at CFR Cluj or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CFR Cluj lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Islam Slimani obliged against Viitorul. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CFR Cluj.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andres Sfaiţ did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
He is 21 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Barrios 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Claudiu Cicaldau on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 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 1‑1 draw with Voluntari leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout16 Nov 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.” Claudiu Cicaldau chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CFR Cluj told Simão Rocha something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Rareş Gal
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bogdan Dragusin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Adrian Deac 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon CFR Cluj had all but put away. Universitatea Craiova will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. CFR Cluj scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Alibek Aliev 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.
Three points for CFR Cluj, 1‑0 the final word against Petrolul in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Adrian Păun 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CFR Cluj, and 5 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Riad Šuta 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Claudiu Cicaldau after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CFR Cluj told Camora something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Adrian Păun 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 Christopher Braun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 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.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sergiu Marin 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. Razvan Maxim 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.
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.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CFR Cluj lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 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.
Astra 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
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.
FCSB 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.
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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Botosani will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Alibek Aliev takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alibek Aliev provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alibek Aliev. 2‑1 against Botosani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 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.” Claudiu Cicaldau, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Voluntari, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Alibek Aliev takes the afternoon — 9.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alibek Aliev provided it, and the 9.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yannick Semedo has, at CFR Cluj, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Alibek Aliev 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CFR Cluj have done the hard part with Astra, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. CFR Cluj will try again when the window opens; Sporting Cristal may not be selling by then.
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.
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.
Alibek Aliev 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 phone has started ringing about Răzvan Gligor again, and this time the name on the line is Pandurii. CFR Cluj are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 offer went to Sporting Cristal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Anton Krešić has gone, the accounts have $1.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
CFR Cluj asked and Pandurii 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Legia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Viitorul paid $1.0M and CFR Cluj took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
$32.0K was the most the club would pay and FCSB 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CFR Cluj have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Alibek Aliev takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alibek Aliev provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Dinamo Bucharest 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.
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.
Dinamo Bucharest wanted more than $310.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
CFR Cluj have gone to FCSB 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alibek Aliev. 3‑2 against Dinamo Bucharest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Dragos Coman from Astra for $1.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolae Sula 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.
In brief
SquadWords at CFR Cluj training over how hard people work
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Astra this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The fee is $240.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Botosani drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 CFR Cluj this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$31.0K was the most the club would pay and Universitatea Craiova 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.
The name of Yuval Sade has come up in conversations CFR Cluj were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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: 49. 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.
$1.5M was the most the club would pay and Nashville SC 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.
CFR Cluj have gone to Botosani 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 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.
$27.0K on the table at Universitatea Craiova. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$27.0K on the table at Dinamo Bucharest. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrei Nedelcearu 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandru Balasa 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.
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 have gone to Nashville SC 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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CFR Cluj have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
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.