A brace, and Elvir Koljić takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elvir Koljić provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. FC Argeș will try not to make too much of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FC Argeș, another week without a signature from Elvir Koljić.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Botosani will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Xian Emmers 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.
Jakov Blagaić 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and FC Argeș 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.
Metaloglobus Bucharest will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. FC Argeș were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. FC Bihor Oradea will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Cătălin Căbuz 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 Xian Emmers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Everybody at FC Argeș saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Elvir Koljić signs something — a contract at FC Argeș or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at FC Argeș training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xian Emmers 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maxim Skavysh commits to FC Argeș for another 1 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicusor Mitrita was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FC Argeș dressing room was either.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Vadim Raţa'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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Xian Emmers 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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Hermannstadt, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at FC Argeș training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Claudiu Micovschi 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nicusor Mitrita on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Argeș, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Universitatea Craiova next, and one man in the FC Argeș dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
Player ratingsHalf an hour was enough for Jakov Blagaić
Mario Tudose, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 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.
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.
Cătălin Căbuz 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Tudose 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.
8 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.
“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.
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.
Words at FC Argeș training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xian Emmers 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. Southampton have kept their man, and FC Argeș go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Elvir Koljić signs something — a contract at FC Argeș or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at FC Argeș 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xian Emmers 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. Zenit have kept their man, and FC Argeș go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jakov Blagaić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Leon Zeqiraj
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Leon Zeqiraj has come out of that comparison in the side, and FC Argeș have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FC Argeș and FCSB in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
FC Argeș asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ricardo Matos 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Nicusor Mitrita to a room that had heard them before.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
1‑4 to CFR Cluj, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
FC Argeș had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sparta Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
FC Argeș asked and Unirea Slobozia 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
Xian Emmers 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.
Ricardo Matos 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and FC Argeș are still learning each other
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Rober Sierra, marked 7.67, 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.
The offer from Casa Pia for Ricardo Matos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xian Emmers 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. Spezia have kept their man, and FC Argeș go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Leon Zeqiraj 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Steaua Bucharest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at FC Argeș is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with FCSB 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Xian Emmers 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
FC Argeș asked and Cagliari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alexandru Nedelcearu 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. Razvan Burca 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. Adrian Balasa 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Argeș 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 Xian Emmers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Xian Emmers’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.