Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSC Șelimbăr will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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 Patrick Vuc is on it.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSC Șelimbăr 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Luca Banu, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.18
A mark of 8.18 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.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ionuţ Rădescu 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 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.
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.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSC Șelimbăr 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 CSC Șelimbăr will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Andrei Rus is on it.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cosmin Cicaldau was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the CSC Șelimbăr dressing room was either.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSC Șelimbăr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Yohan Roche 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; CSC Șelimbăr are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Corvinul Hunedoara scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yohan Roche is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Cosmin Cicaldau after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Yohan Roche 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ionuţ Rădescu 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
156% of the income goes out in wages at CSC Șelimbăr
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cosmin Cicaldau after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Nobody at CSC Șelimbăr 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 Ionuţ Ailenei signs something — a contract at CSC Șelimbăr or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSC Șelimbăr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yohan Roche. 1‑0 against Gloria Bistrița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CSC Șelimbăr.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Andrei Rus was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petrişor Petrescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Ionuţ Rădescu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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 CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSC Șelimbăr, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ionuţ Rădescu 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; CSC Șelimbăr are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSC Șelimbăr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ionuţ Rădescu 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
156% of the income goes out in wages at CSC Șelimbăr
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mykola Kovtaliuk. 2‑0 against FC Bacău, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ionuţ Ban is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at CSC Șelimbăr can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Ionuţ Ailenei is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSC Șelimbăr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ionuţ Rădescu 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.
Yohan Roche 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.
“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 CSC Șelimbăr know it.
At 33, 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSC Șelimbăr told Luca Banu something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Yohan Roche and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mykola Kovtaliuk. 2‑1 against CSC Dumbrăvița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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 has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout5 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.” Cosmin Cicaldau, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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. David Barbu has moved up it.
“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.
Nobody at CSC Șelimbăr 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Politehnica Iași? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CSC Șelimbăr would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Ionuţ Ailenei was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Vuc has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cosmin Cicaldau was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the CSC Șelimbăr dressing room was either.
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSC Șelimbăr, another week without a signature from Yohan Roche.
Squad14 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and CSC Șelimbăr 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ionuţ Rădescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CSC Șelimbăr are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
CSC Șelimbăr close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 0 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.
Yohan Roche and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kamil Wiktorski has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSC Șelimbăr, another week without a signature from Ionuţ Rădescu.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CSC Șelimbăr are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ionuţ Rădescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 CSC Șelimbăr, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSC Șelimbăr have done the hard part with Dinamo Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jelgava have kept their man, and CSC Șelimbăr go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Concordia Chiajna will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSC Șelimbăr were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mykola Kovtaliuk provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.39, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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: Mykola Kovtaliuk from Botosani for $970.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Richard Odada has, at CSC Șelimbăr, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
CSC Șelimbăr and FK Csíkszereda have settled on $180.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Botosani 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $200.2K — a club that wants Zoltán Bödő enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiv Plovdiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Yohan Roche 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.
Yohan Roche and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ionuţ Rădescu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Claudiu Cicaldau is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Bancu 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alexandru Burca is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adrian Mihaila is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cristian Costin has, at CSC Șelimbăr, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
CSC Șelimbăr asked and Dinamo Bucharest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.