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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Lucas Torró is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
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.
“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.
Universitatea Craiova 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.
“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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Darius Olaru has moved up 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 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.
“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 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 Denis Drăguş is on 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 and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Risto Radunović'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.
SquadDenis Drăguş is the talk of the training ground
20Edition
The FCSB Chronicle
14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Lucas Torró'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.
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.
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.
Mamadou Doucouré 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.
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 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.
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.
Ştefan Târnovanu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It 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.
26 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.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FCSB has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A 2‑1 win over Botosani, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Mamadou Thiam takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mamadou Thiam provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He is 23 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Marius Balasa kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.99, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Dinamo Bucharest held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. FCSB answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tiago Simões has, at FCSB, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes FCSB will be judged on one thing only.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Eddy Gnahoré will call it something else in private.
5 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Something was said to Lucas Torró and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It needed Denis Drăguş to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Botosani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout2 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.” Marius Balasa chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Vlad Marin
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Botosani next, and one man in the FCSB dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at FCSB.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Lucas Torró'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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FCSB told Ofri Arad something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Marius Balasa could afford to be generous.
Ştefan Târnovanu 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 23 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cristian 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Stanciu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Lucas Torró
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lucas Torró has come out of that comparison in the side, and FCSB have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
FCSB will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marius Balasa was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the FCSB dressing room was either.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 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. 8.07 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Octavian Popescu. 2‑0 against Viitorul, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Position 4, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 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.” Marius Balasa kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Minute 85, against Astra, 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.
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 Lucas Torró is on it.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Marius Balasa chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and André Duarte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Beaten 1‑4 by Dinamo Bucharest in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
20 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.
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 7.95 for the rest of it.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yannick Semedo has, at FCSB, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adrian Stanciu 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. Daniel Coman 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Lucas Torró’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
28 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Octavian Popescu reports back to FCSB with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
CFR Cluj paid $3.0M 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at FCSB 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.
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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Octavian Popescu 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.
35 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FCSB have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Everything agreed with Universitatea Craiova, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
43 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
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.
FCSB offered $340.0K; 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.
CFR Cluj paid $620.0K 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.
Osasuna did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.6M for Lucas Torró, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The fee is $830.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Astra drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Empoli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
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.
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.
FCSB and Astra have settled on $830.0K. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and FCSB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$3.6M on the table at Osasuna. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
He is 23 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Juri Cisotti’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
SquadRisto Radunović falls out with a teammate over standards