Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Roche 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Debrecen have kept their man, and CSC Șelimbăr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Cosmin Cicaldau left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
In brief
The dugoutRichard Odada knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ionut Man 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. Dorin Balasa 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. Ianis Bancu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSC Șelimbăr can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with CS Afumați, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at CSC Șelimbăr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yohan Roche 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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
133% 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 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 Andrei Rus.
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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSC Șelimbăr can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Botosani will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jakub Głaz has pre-agreed a move to CSC Șelimbăr, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
CSC Șelimbăr asked and Miedź Legnica 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.
“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 Richard Odada.
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.
“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.
Yohan Roche and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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.
CSC Șelimbăr asked and Hertha Wels said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
CSC Șelimbăr have made the call to Vllaznia Shkodër. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mykola Kovtaliuk signs something — a contract at CSC Șelimbăr or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutPatrick Vuc knocks on the manager’s door
“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.
The deal with Farul Constanța 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chindia Târgoviște have kept their man, and CSC Șelimbăr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Issiaka Touré
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSC Șelimbăr have done the hard part with Stade Lavallois, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSC Șelimbăr can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
149% 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Daniel Benzar 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Iestyn Jones has just signed for CSC Șelimbăr, and for once the answer mattered.
The deal with CS Dinamo Bucharest 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 CSC Șelimbăr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
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 are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSC Șelimbăr will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Yohan Roche and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petrişor Petrescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mykola Kovtaliuk signs something — a contract at CSC Șelimbăr or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSC Șelimbăr know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: George Monea
SquadDavid Barbu, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Rădescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSC Șelimbăr 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. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings10 May 2027
David Barbu, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.69
A mark of 8.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Rădescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 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.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSC Șelimbăr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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.
“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 Richard Odada.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSC Șelimbăr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Rădescu 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.” Cosmin Cicaldau after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
41 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Gloria Bistrița will replay every second of the added time for a week.
7.86, 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Rădescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
9 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
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.
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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation CSC Șelimbăr did not have in the autumn.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
29 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. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
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 Cristian Costin signs something — a contract at CSC Șelimbăr or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Barbu did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSC Șelimbăr can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
145% 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then CS Tunari scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrei Rus's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7.36, 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.
Yohan Roche and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 CSC Șelimbăr 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 Rădescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Barbu. 1‑0 against CSC Dumbrăvița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Cosmin Cicaldau could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutAndrei Rus has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutRichard Odada knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
11 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hamidou Kanté has just signed for CSC Șelimbăr, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSC Șelimbăr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ionuţ Ailenei 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Brayan has, at CSC Șelimbăr, 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 Ionuţ Rădescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sepsi OSK have kept their man, and CSC Șelimbăr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Cosmin Cicaldau to a room that had heard them before.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 134 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mykola Kovtaliuk provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“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.
CSC Șelimbăr asked and Arsenal Tula said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Richard Odada will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at CSC Șelimbăr escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
David Barbu, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.67
A mark of 8.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.65 for the rest of it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at CSC Șelimbăr 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jafar Bynoe has, at CSC Șelimbăr, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ionuţ Rădescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
CSC Șelimbăr asked and Wisla Krakow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Luca Banu, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSC Șelimbăr can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSC Șelimbăr have done the hard part with Politehnica Iași, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botosani have kept their man, and CSC Șelimbăr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Banu 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club 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. Mlada Boleslav have kept their man, and CSC Șelimbăr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mykola Kovtaliuk. 1‑0 against Câmpulung Muscel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — 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 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
A loan enquiry to Mlada Boleslav: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Bayelsa United 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Cosmin Cicaldau could afford to be generous.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Barbu did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at CSC Șelimbăr, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSC Șelimbăr can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
He is 20 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.
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.