From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Montana out
Out, 0‑1 to Botev Plovdiv, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Montana
0‑3 against Levski, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Montana's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Montana has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cardiff City keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match22 Aug 2026
Montana cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Montana
Tiago Rodrigues and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Botev Plovdiv 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Montana
0‑3 against Lokomotiv Sofia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Montana
Tiago Rodrigues 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Vasil Simeonov
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Jair Tavares
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Montana were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Montana dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Martin Kostadinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Pavel Zhabov in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Montana are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Krasimir Nedelkov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Montana asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo City is saying, and nobody at Montana is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valentin Angelov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Krasimir Nedelkov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kiril Yankov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Simeon Bojinov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vasil Simeonov and Montana agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tiago Rodrigues 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Montana asked and Benevento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vajebah Sakor 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Montana, another week without a signature from Vasil Simeonov.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Dinamo City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Match1 Aug 2026
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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.