Dunav Ruse had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Arda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giacomo Volpe 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. Central Espanol have kept their man, and Dunav Ruse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dunav Ruse have made the call to Union Magdalena. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florian Monseu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Júnior Franco 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.
Kristiyan Gospodinov has left for Beroe in a $140.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Giacomo Volpe 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.
Dunav Ruse asked and Arda 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 Dunav Ruse, another week without a signature from Tomás Bernardo.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dunav Ruse. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Plovdiv have kept their man, and Dunav Ruse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Marinov 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Beroe will make the call about Kristiyan Gospodinov this week. Dunav Ruse have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristian Rodriguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Dunav Ruse had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Angelos Syritoudis has just signed for Dunav Ruse, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Volpe 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.
Júnior Franco 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dunav Ruse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Júnior Franco 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 Borislav Marinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dunav Ruse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dunav Ruse 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dunav Ruse, another week without a signature from Martin Angelov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elysée Sou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dunav Ruse know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gonçalo Cascalheira has written the date down.
Squad10 May 2027
Questions about Ivan Vasilev on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Nikola Iliev’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“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; Dunav Ruse are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Júnior Franco 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 Borislav Marinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Júnior Franco 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristian Rodriguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Lucas Araújo
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.
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Apr 2027
22 new faces, and Dunav Ruse 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dunav Ruse. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dunav Ruse, another week without a signature from Guilherme Santos.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dunav Ruse, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dunav Ruse have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Cristian Rodriguez scored in the 88th minute, Sportist Svoge had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Dunav Ruse took the lot.
5 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.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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 Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Marinov 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 38, 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Iliev 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.
Júnior Franco 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 Mihael Orachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Dunav Ruse man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Borislav Marinov was the best thing in any of them.
4 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.
Júnior Franco 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.
9.71. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihael Orachev 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 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.
5‑1, and Júnior Franco took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dunav Ruse tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Júnior Franco takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Júnior Franco provided it, and the 8.37 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 Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Júnior Franco on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dunav Ruse and Sevlievo.
“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 Dunav Ruse know it.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 10‑0 against CSKA Sofia II, and it could have been more.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Lucas Araújo takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Araújo provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Dunav Ruse know it.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
10 goals in one match, Borislav Marinov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dunav Ruse and CSKA Sofia II.
Position 3, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Júnior Franco 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 Borislav Marinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dunav Ruse will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
CSKA Sofia II next, and one man in the Dunav Ruse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dunav Ruse. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutTomás Bernardo asks for a word with the manager
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.
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.
20 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 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Nikola Iliev decided nobody was going anywhere. Minyor Pernik had no time left to answer.
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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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 Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gustavo Almeida has, at Dunav Ruse, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Dunav Ruse asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Iliev 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borislav Marinov did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nadir El Majdoub is living that version at Dunav Ruse, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Dunav Ruse close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 1 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dunav Ruse have done the hard part with La Equidad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Júnior Franco 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nadir El Majdoub and Dunav Ruse agree another 4 years.
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Borislav Marinov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Florian Monseu is living that version at Dunav Ruse, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Dunav Ruse, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $1.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Botev Plovdiv drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Júnior Franco 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.02, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
In brief
The terracesThe town asked, and Dunav Ruse paid $1.8M
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have shaken hands with Botev Plovdiv; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nikola Borisov scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomás Bernardo has, at Dunav Ruse, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Levski is saying, and nobody at Dunav Ruse is enjoying the guessing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dunav Ruse have done the hard part with Levski, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Dunav Ruse asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Marinov 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout11 Jan 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 0‑1 Deyan Mihaylov left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borislav Marinov did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dunav Ruse have had the benefit of it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Giacomo Volpe 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dunav Ruse can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dunav Ruse asked and CSKA Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 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.
Diogo 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 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Deyan Mihaylov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihail Minkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mihail Minkov and Dunav Ruse agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Lucas Araújo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Dunav Ruse had all but put away. Marek will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Pirin Blagoevgrad.
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.
Júnior Franco 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
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.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Deyan Mihaylov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Hebar? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Araújo signs something — a contract at Dunav Ruse or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jude Mamman did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.94 for the rest of it.
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.
He is 21 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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Deyan Mihaylov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Sportist Svoge next, and one man in the Dunav Ruse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Dunav Ruse is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Dunav Ruse was different afterwards.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dunav Ruse 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 Borislav Marinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Etar next, and one man in the Dunav Ruse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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.
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Marinov 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Deyan Mihaylov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Ivan Vasilev
Diogo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Borislav Marinov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Borislav Marinov 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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Lucas Araújo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
22 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Marinov 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vladimir Draganov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
16 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.
Diogo is 39 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
CSKA Sofia II next, and one man in the Dunav Ruse dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Dunav Ruse know it.
At 18 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 Dunav Ruse this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dunav Ruse. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Dunav Ruse would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Ivan Vasilev wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Ivan Vasilev found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Belasitsa went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Júnior Franco 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.
He is 19 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Viktor Ergin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dunav Ruse needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Dunav Ruse is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dunav Ruse. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitar Todorov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A brace, and Ivan Vasilev takes the afternoon — 9.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Vasilev provided it, and the 9.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borislav Marinov did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Mihael Orachev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
15 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Deyan Mihaylov kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Minyor Pernik in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dunav Ruse can pretend not to have heard.
At 18 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Spas Iliev 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Emil Atanasov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Todor Tunchev 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borislav Marinov 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 28 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal that would have taken Dimitar Todorov to Pirin Blagoevgrad has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Dunav Ruse with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arda have kept their man, and Dunav Ruse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Almirante Brown: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mihael Orachev has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dunav Ruse have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Ludogorets II, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Ivan Vasilev takes the afternoon — 9.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Vasilev provided it, and the 9.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pirin Blagoevgrad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dunav Ruse is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borislav Marinov did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Lucas Araújo, marked 7.56, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Ivan Vasilev 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 Aug 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.” Deyan Mihaylov, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dunav Ruse have done the hard part with Slavia Sofia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The shirt still fits. Elysée Sou is back at Dunav Ruse, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Ivan Vasilev 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.
Dunav Ruse asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lucas Araújo 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.
Dunav Ruse had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Júnior Franco 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and Dunav Ruse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A performance of 8.66 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Dunav Ruse training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Araújo 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.
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.
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.
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: Lucas Araújo from Botev Plovdiv for $1.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Velislav Boev 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Stilyan Bojinov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vasil Despodov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivan Vasilev is living that version at Dunav Ruse, and it tends to show in the first month.
Dunav Ruse have gone to Botev Plovdiv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Dunav Ruse go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borislav Marinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 87, against Pirin Blagoevgrad, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dunav Ruse will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Every supporter in the ground could have named the hole in this team, and most of them did, loudly, for months. Ivan Vasilev has been signed to close it.