There were 86 minutes on the clock and Petrolul had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and FCSB did not stop to explain themselves.
1 for João Paulo, marked 7.76, 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ianis Bancu could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutOfri Arad has become a man the manager trusts
7.43, 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.
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.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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. Pavel Gaszczyk has just signed for FCSB, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. CFR Cluj had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FCSB, and 0 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at FCSB 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.
0‑1 against Flora. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Juri Cisotti 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.
9 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 FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at FCSB.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Daniel Bîrligea was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
5 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.
0‑8. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Juri Cisotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FCSB and Atlético Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Darius Olaru wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Darius Olaru found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Pandurii went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Juri Cisotti 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.
Three points for FCSB, 1‑0 the final word against Pandurii in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Darius Olaru was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Bucharest on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Teles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FCSB may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
FCSB close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 14 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.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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: 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.
Position 2, 11 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Bîrligea. 2‑0 against Voluntari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dragos Dragusin 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. Daniel Chiriches 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. Ionut Dragusin 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. Nicusor Stanciu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Samuel Teles 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ianis Bancu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Petrolul will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.35 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
6 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
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.” Ianis Bancu, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Juri Cisotti 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. Risto Radunović 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 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 Meriton Korenica is on 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 FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ianis Bancu was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FCSB dressing room was either.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. CFR Cluj defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dylan Batubinsika is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Teles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Aug 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 Ianis Bancu left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Ofri Arad is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Juri Cisotti 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.
6 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.
Nobody at FCSB 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 Siyabonga Ngezana 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 Meriton Korenica signs something — a contract at FCSB or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Risto Radunović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and FCSB needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Denis Drăguş has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Juri Cisotti 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Razvan Mitrita 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. Daniel Dragusin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bogdan Deac 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.
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 Meriton Korenica is on 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 FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandru Maxim is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Bîrligea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dinamo Moscow did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $6.7M for Ivan Sergeev, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Add another name to the list: Universitatea Craiova have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Siyabonga Ngezana. The answer from FCSB has not changed — yet.
FCSB 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Óscar Torrellas is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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: Ivan Sergeev from Dinamo Moscow for $6.7M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Ivan Sergeev 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.
In brief
The dugoutJuri Cisotti has become a man the manager trusts
$6.7M on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrei Dăncuş is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The chase for Simon Elisor ended with $950.0K changing hands and Universitatea Craiova out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Juri Cisotti 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around FCSB people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$3.1M was the most the club would pay and Pandurii 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: HNK Rijeka keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Juri Cisotti 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.
FCSB asked and Pandurii said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Daniel Bîrligea’s exile
FCSB have gone to Pandurii 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.
FCSB asked and Petrolul said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
FCSB 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB 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.
The name of Octavian Popescu has come up in conversations FCSB were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ante Matej Jurić is in the works
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Risto Radunović 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.
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.
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 Ofri Arad is on it.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at FCSB no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Juri Cisotti 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FCSB, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Juri Cisotti is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vlad Chiricheş 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FCSB know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Oleksandr Romanchuk plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
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.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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 watch every FCSB game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pandurii runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at FCSB 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 Darius Olaru signs something — a contract at FCSB or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Siyabonga Ngezana has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FCSB, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FCSB know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 4 on 27 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCSB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FCSB, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Samuel Teles is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Ofri Arad is on it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Juri Cisotti 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.
“I watch every FCSB game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Petrolul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Juri Cisotti 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Samuel Teles 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 FCSB 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.
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 Samuel Teles has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at FCSB the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Hagi 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. Alexandru Stanciu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Teles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every FCSB game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Viitorul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Position 4, 27 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FCSB know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FCSB, another week without a signature from Roan Wilson.
In brief
The dugoutNarcis Ilaş knocks on the manager’s door
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Óscar Torrellas has, at FCSB, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FCSB, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 20, and nobody at FCSB signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and FCSB 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.
Nobody at FCSB 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FCSB. 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 Narcis Ilaş trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCSB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Romanchuk 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 watch every FCSB game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pandurii runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at FCSB, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at FCSB 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.
27 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Lukáš Zima has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCSB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB 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 Oleksandr Romanchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andrei Maxim 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.
“I watch every FCSB game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Petrolul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FCSB know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCSB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Juri Cisotti 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.
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 Juri Cisotti is on it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
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 André Duarte has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Paulo asks for a word with the manager
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCSB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Juri Cisotti 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 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 Darius Olaru is on 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 FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Romanchuk 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. Pandurii have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at FCSB 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 4, 27 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Everything was agreed with Universitatea Craiova and then the doctor spoke. FCSB have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Claudiu Maxim 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.
Narcis Ilaş 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.
Nobody at FCSB 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.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCSB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
FCSB have gone to Universitatea Craiova 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
FCSB close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 5 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.
Everything agreed with Slovan Bratislava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
FCSB asked and Plymouth Argyle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Something was said to Ofri Arad and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
FCSB had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Catania, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Juri Cisotti 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 Oleksandr Romanchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Universitatea Craiova pay $84.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Red Bull Salzburg 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.
In brief
The dugoutDarius Olaru has become a man the manager trusts
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCSB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FCSB are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
FCSB have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Universitatea Craiova; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Viitorul paid $380.0K and FCSB took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Botosani will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Zoran Mitrov has pre-agreed a move to FCSB, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitatea Craiova have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Ofri Arad is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCSB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Juri Cisotti 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Graovac has his answer from FCSB; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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.
Juri Cisotti 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 Risto Radunović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at FCSB 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 Siyabonga Ngezana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 goals in 12 games at Frosinone — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at FCSB updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 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 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 FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
0‑2 against Brentford, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
Risto Radunović 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 dugout14 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ianis Bancu to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at FCSB pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FCSB know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Juri Cisotti 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 Risto Radunović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mihai Toma is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
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.
0‑3. Koper play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCSB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Oleksandr Romanchuk will call it something else in private.
Something was said to Juri Cisotti and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Lukáš Zima: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Pandurii go through and FCSB go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
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 point taken on 92 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.
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
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.” Ianis Bancu chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FCSB can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Risto Radunović 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.
Nobody at FCSB 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FCSB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑0 against Sion, 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.
Juri Cisotti 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.
Dinamo Bucharest next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
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 Siyabonga Ngezana.
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 Ofri Arad is on it.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCSB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCSB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Risto Radunović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Dylan Batubinsika.
“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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCSB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Meriton Korenica is on it.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCSB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
10 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 dugout12 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.” Ianis Bancu, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dylan Batubinsika trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Universitatea Craiova arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Juri Cisotti 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Romanchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout28 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.” Ianis Bancu 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 Viitorul? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
2‑1 against Koper, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mamadou Thiam was at the centre of the description.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Teles. 2‑1 against Astra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
David Miculescu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at FCSB pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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 was agreed with Universitatea Craiova and then the doctor spoke. FCSB have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel 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.
10 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.
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ianis Bancu was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FCSB dressing room was either.
11 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$49.0K settles it between the clubs for Silviu Lung
Universitatea Craiova have accepted the money. What FCSB do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$960.0K on the table at CFR Cluj. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Vlad Chiricheş reports back to FCSB with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
FCSB offered $610.0K; Universitatea Craiova 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
FCSB and Botosani have settled on $540.0K. 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.
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.
Universitatea Craiova did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $970.0K for Samuel Teles, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Narcis Ilaş is living that version at FCSB, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCSB can pretend not to have heard.
FCSB have gone to Universitatea Craiova 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.
$510.0K was the most the club would pay and CFR Cluj 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.
$84.0K on the table at Botosani. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCSB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ştefan Târnovanu was one of the reasons people came, and $2.0M does not replace that by itself.
FCSB offered $1.1M; Universitatea Craiova 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.
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.
FCSB asked and Universitatea Craiova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Juri Cisotti 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.0M has been paid because Oleksandr Romanchuk is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitatea Craiova have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Oleksandr Romanchuk was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ionut Cicaldau 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Romanchuk 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.
Juri Cisotti 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 interest, it is real, and it comes from the one direction that makes it a story rather than a transfer. FCSB supporters have already said what they think.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Denis Drăguş’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to FCSB.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Denis Drăguş was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.