Bachirou Yaméogo 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 Fran Callejón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The 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 Dragusin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Bachirou Yaméogo 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ionuţ Pop 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 is 17 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Krzysztof Wrzosek and CS Tunari agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and CSC Șelimbăr spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bachirou Yaméogo 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
18 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Marked 7.50. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout26 Oct 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 Dragusin, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
At 21 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.
Gabriel Buta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bachirou Yaméogo 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 CS Tunari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Robert Răducioiu is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Gabriel Buta 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ionuţ Pop 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CS Tunari, another week without a signature from Quentin Bena.
In brief
The dugoutSory Traoré asks for a word with the manager
Gabriel Buta 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at CS Tunari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bachirou Yaméogo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexander Lazaro 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.
A 2‑0 win over Câmpulung Muscel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Andreas Ivan in the middle of it, and Câmpulung Muscel unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Andreas Ivan
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Fran Callejón 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.
17 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to George Gogescu, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Claudiu Dragusin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the CS Tunari dressing room was either.
Câmpulung Muscel next, and one man in the CS Tunari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari 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 Ionuţ Pop was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CS Tunari has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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 Răzvan Dumitru is on it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CS Tunari can pretend not to have heard.
Gabriel Buta 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.
CS Tunari asked and Dukla Prague 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CS Tunari will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CS Tunari can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at CS Tunari 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.
CS Tunari have gone to Sepsi OSK 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Petrolul Ploiești have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sory Traoré 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.
A loan enquiry to Petrolul Ploiești: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to FCSB; CS Tunari go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Noah Medalli has, at CS Tunari, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CS Tunari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ionuţ Pop 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.
15 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 shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Emanuel Breban: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
A 2‑2 win over CSC Dumbrăvița, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Răzvan Dumitru, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mamadu Baio is living that version at CS Tunari, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Universitatea Craiova is saying, and nobody at CS Tunari is enjoying the guessing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $32.2K — a club that wants Daniele Luncaşu enough to be asked twice.
Gabriel Buta 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. Steaua Bucharest have kept their man, and CS Tunari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriel Buta has just signed for CS Tunari, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CS Tunari can pretend not to have heard.
$1.2M 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.
$26.0K on the table at FC Bacău. 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 CS Tunari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
CS Tunari spend $230.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $230.0K for Ionuţ Pop, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergiu Burca 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andrei Maxim is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadIonuţ Pop falls out with a teammate over standards
Successful dribbles: 28. 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 offer went to Sepsi OSK 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.
CS Tunari have gone to Hermannstadt 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.