Successful dribbles: 33. 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 is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Pandurii kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Dinamo Bucharest will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matthias Verreth was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Alexandru Musi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Dinamo Bucharest prefer.
1‑0 against Zurich, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mamoudou Karamoko provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.41, 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.
Nikita Stoinov 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 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 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.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Botosani were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Nikita Stoinov 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 Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Bucharest has to find a result from somewhere.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paul Stanciu has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ianis Maxim 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matthias Verreth was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Bucharest know it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikita Stoinov'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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑5 against Tottenham. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
8 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lisandru Olmeta is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Raul Opruţ 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 had been thinking. Cătălin Cîrjan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The 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.
“I watch every Dinamo Bucharest game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Debrecen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest 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 Cătălin Cîrjan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout28 Sep 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 1‑3 Sergiu Man left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Dinamo Bucharest deserved better, and so did he.
1‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthias Verreth 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Devis Epassy.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Manuel Kissanga has just signed for Dinamo Bucharest, and for once the answer mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ianis Moldovan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manuel Kissanga and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Manuel Kissanga is 20, and Dinamo Bucharest have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolás Azambuja did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Dinamo Bucharest 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.
$470.0K was the most the club would pay and Botosani were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cătălin Cîrjan 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cătălin Cîrjan 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 fee is $750.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Botosani drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Dinamo Bucharest offered $510.0K; CFR Cluj said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Nikita Stoinov 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. CFR Cluj have kept their man, and Dinamo Bucharest go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthias Verreth 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.
Dinamo Bucharest have gone to Botosani with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$720.0K was the most the club would pay and Botosani were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Dinamo Bucharest asked and Botosani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Cătălin Cîrjan'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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 99th minute. Botosani will replay every second of the added time for a week.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Alberto Soro takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alberto Soro provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Zadar for Ianis Tarbă was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Universitatea Craiova wanted more than $1.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lech is saying, and nobody at Dinamo Bucharest is enjoying the guessing.
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.
The offer went to CFR Cluj 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.
Dinamo Bucharest have gone to Botosani with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer from Bohemians 1905 for Alexandru Musi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Bucharest this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Ianis Tarbă again, and this time the name on the line is Zadar. Dinamo Bucharest are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. George Marin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Voluntari, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and George Puşcaş takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. George Puşcaş provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alberto Soro and Dinamo Bucharest agree another 4 years.
Raul Opruţ was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.