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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Slatina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
14 new faces, and CSM Slatina 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vlad Prejmerean was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.19 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, CSM Slatina had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexandru Bancu was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the CSM Slatina dressing room was either.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation CSM Slatina did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Lupu 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.
Vlad Andreş 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.
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 view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alexandru Bancu chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Samad Popoola'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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Franck Tchassem decided nobody was going anywhere. CS Afumați had no time left to answer.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 19 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Lupu 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.
CSM Slatina asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CSM Slatina, another week without a signature from Narek Grigoryan.
“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 CSM Slatina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
CSM Slatina asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and CSM Slatina know which stage they are at.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vlad Prejmerean 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.
CSM Slatina had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at UTC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSM Slatina can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Szilárd Veres delivers — 7.74
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Szilárd Veres scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSM Reșița have kept their man, and CSM Slatina 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. Samad Popoola has just signed for CSM Slatina, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at CSM Slatina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Lupu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marius Lupu. 2‑1 against CSC Dumbrăvița, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Slatina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.1M — a club that wants Adolfo Muñoz enough to be asked twice.
The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Politehnica Iași drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marius Lupu 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. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and CSM Slatina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Emilian Pacionel again, and this time the name on the line is CSC Șelimbăr. CSM Slatina are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Narek Grigoryan at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Óscar Siafá at his very best
The offer went to Politehnica Iași 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.
Adewale Sapara 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.
CSM Slatina asked and Hermannstadt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CSM Slatina will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. CSM Slatina know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Narek Grigoryan has just signed for CSM Slatina, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Slatina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Balasa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dorin Keseru 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. Ciprian 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. Mihai Deac has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSM Slatina 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 Szilárd Magyari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
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 Alexandru Bancu left the room before anybody could ask which.
Petrolul Ploiești 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and CSM Slatina 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.