48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pirin Blagoevgrad have done the hard part with Dobrudzha, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pirin Blagoevgrad has to find a result from somewhere.
The deal with Botev Plovdiv is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
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.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pirin Blagoevgrad can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pirin Blagoevgrad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pirin Blagoevgrad has to find a result from somewhere.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pirin Blagoevgrad have done the hard part with Partizani Tirana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Deyan Lozev 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriel Carvalho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with Septemvri, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Krasimir Kostov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Plovdiv have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
7 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.
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.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pirin Blagoevgrad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botev Plovdiv have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pirin Blagoevgrad know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ventsislav Kerchev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chase for Vladislav Tsekov ended with $260.0K changing hands and Montana out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Botev Plovdiv pay $190.0K, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
The deal with Levski is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Levski is saying, and nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad is enjoying the guessing.
Bilal El Bakkali 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 Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$1.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to CSKA Sofia, the club has $1.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriel Carvalho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Georgi Tartov 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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Denislav Angelov again, and this time the name on the line is CSKA Sofia. Pirin Blagoevgrad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Petar Karaangelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botev Plovdiv have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pirin Blagoevgrad has been clear about where Deyan Lozev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivo Kazakov 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.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pirin Blagoevgrad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Pirin Blagoevgrad have had the benefit of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Karaangelov 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.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Krasimir Kostov 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Hevertton 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
132 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Pirin Blagoevgrad will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriel Carvalho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Dinev 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandar Georgiev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Petar Karaangelov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Krasimir Kostov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Hevertton 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bilal El Bakkali trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pirin Blagoevgrad could ask drops and the wages Aleksandar Georgiev can ask rise.
Georgi Tartov 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Hevertton 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Pirin Blagoevgrad will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Kristiyan Boychev 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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, 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.
55 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pirin Blagoevgrad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bilal El Bakkali 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. Petar Karaangelov 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.
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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kristiyan Boychev signs something — a contract at Pirin Blagoevgrad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pirin Blagoevgrad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pirin Blagoevgrad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Hevertton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ventsislav Kerchev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Krasimir Kostov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Hevertton 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gabriel Carvalho is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shirt still fits. Lazar Boyanov is back at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lazar Boyanov has just signed for Pirin Blagoevgrad, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pirin Blagoevgrad has been clear about where Ivo Kazakov stands, which is more than many ever get.
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. 18 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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pirin Blagoevgrad has to find a result from somewhere.
Krasimir Kostov 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. Hevertton 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 is 22 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.57, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Petar Karaangelov 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. Hevertton 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Martin Lukov will call it something else in private.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Deyan Bojinov to a room that had heard them before.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pirin Blagoevgrad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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 1‑3 Deyan Bojinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Bilal El Bakkali 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 8.59 — 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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7.52, 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.
Krasimir Kostov 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Hevertton 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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Fratria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denislav Angelov provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pirin Blagoevgrad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pirin Blagoevgrad and Dunav Ruse in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denislav Angelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ventsislav Kerchev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pirin Blagoevgrad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pirin Blagoevgrad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pirin Blagoevgrad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Beroe waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Krasimir Kostov 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 Hevertton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Ludogorets for Ventsislav Kerchev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Bilal El Bakkali 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 name of Gabriel Carvalho has come up in conversations Pirin Blagoevgrad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Fratria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Botev Plovdiv for Aleksandar Georgiev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hevertton 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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Botev Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The offer from Lokomotiv Sofia for Kristiyan Boychev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pirin Blagoevgrad can pretend not to have heard.
Petar Karaangelov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Giorgos Ladas is living that version at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hevertton 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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Lokomotiv Plovdiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, and 4 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
Sportist Svoge will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pirin Blagoevgrad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pirin Blagoevgrad can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pirin Blagoevgrad had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hevertton is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Richardson Rivas 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Richardson Rivas. 2‑0 against Etar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Deyan Lozev's mistake
Richardson Rivas 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 Hevertton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Spartak Pleven spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
Krasimir Kostov 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 had been thinking. Richardson Rivas 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I did not go to Etar to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pirin Blagoevgrad and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
The dugout13 Dec 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 Deyan Bojinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Position 2, 31 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pirin Blagoevgrad and CSKA Sofia II in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Hevertton 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kristiyan Boychev 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.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Pirin Blagoevgrad will not try tonight.
8.36. 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.
8.35. 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.
Georgi Tartov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Hevertton 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against CSKA Sofia II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Marko Martinović has written the date down.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Pirin Blagoevgrad squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
14 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.
Bilal El Bakkali 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Richardson Rivas 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 had been thinking. Hevertton is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pirin Blagoevgrad, another week without a signature from Ventsislav Kerchev.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandar Georgiev signs something — a contract at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.” Pirin Blagoevgrad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Richardson Rivas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Hevertton 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.
“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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, and 3 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ivo Kazakov obliged against Beroe. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pirin Blagoevgrad.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 118th minute. Beroe will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Richardson Rivas provided it, and the 9.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.73 beside his 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 Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Richardson Rivas 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. Hevertton 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.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Pirin Blagoevgrad had all but put away. Vihren will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 11 goals between Pirin Blagoevgrad and Ludogorets II, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pirin Blagoevgrad has been clear about where Matheus Nunes stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Denislav Angelov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Pirin Blagoevgrad and Dunav Ruse.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Svetoslav Dikov and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Hevertton 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.
At 22 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Richardson Rivas 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 Hevertton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Deyan Bojinov could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martin Lukov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Krasimir Kostov 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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: 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.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Successful dribbles: 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hevertton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrahim Keïta. 1‑0 against Montana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pirin Blagoevgrad told Richardson Rivas something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pirin Blagoevgrad can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 28 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hevertton 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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
“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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Pirin Blagoevgrad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pirin Blagoevgrad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Botev Plovdiv pay $360.0K, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richardson Rivas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 132 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pirin Blagoevgrad can pretend not to have heard.
Match18 Aug 2027
Ivo Kazakov wins it after the whistle should have gone
101 minutes played. Ivo Kazakov found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Septemvri went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The offer from Levski for Ventsislav Kerchev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Ivo Kazakov takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivo Kazakov provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richardson Rivas did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pirin Blagoevgrad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Hevertton 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pirin Blagoevgrad, another week without a signature from Aleksandar Georgiev.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Richardson Rivas 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: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Hevertton 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zeleznicar Pancevo have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 20 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hristo Popadiyn has his answer from Pirin Blagoevgrad; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Marked 8.57 — 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.
Hristo Popadiyn 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. Ivan Vasilev 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad have made the call to Alvarado. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pirin Blagoevgrad know which stage they are at.
Pirin Blagoevgrad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Spartak 1918, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Levski is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Georgi Tartov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fratria have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ivan Vasilev 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pirin Blagoevgrad know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pirin Blagoevgrad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pirin Blagoevgrad, another week without a signature from Denislav Angelov.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Wesley Junio
The deal with Levski is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Bilal El Bakkali 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandar Georgiev signs something — a contract at Pirin Blagoevgrad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pirin Blagoevgrad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and CSKA Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pirin Blagoevgrad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Artur Kopylov has, at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kristiyan Bachev 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 Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pirin Blagoevgrad have made the call to Chernomorets Burgas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pirin Blagoevgrad know which stage they are at.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ákos Sigér has just signed for Pirin Blagoevgrad, and for once the answer mattered.
Hristo Popadiyn 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marko Martinović and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 3 years.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Chernomorets Burgas 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pirin Blagoevgrad have made the call to Lokomotiv Plovdiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Pirin Blagoevgrad have made the call to CSKA Sofia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Hristo Popadiyn 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Kristiyan Boychev 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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Karaangelov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bistra Petkov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentin 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Galchev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Deyan 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pirin Blagoevgrad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bilal El Bakkali 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. Petar Karaangelov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pirin Blagoevgrad, another week without a signature from Denislav Angelov.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Denislav Angelov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Wesley Junio has written the date down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pirin Blagoevgrad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Hristo Popadiyn 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 Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pirin Blagoevgrad know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denislav Angelov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
Klajdi Kuka is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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 Pirin Blagoevgrad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pirin Blagoevgrad. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
50 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
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.
Something was said to Filip Gigov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Deyan Lozev 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 Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pirin Blagoevgrad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Svetoslav Dikov signs something — a contract at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.” Pirin Blagoevgrad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Denislav Angelov 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pirin Blagoevgrad is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutEmanuil Manev asks for a word with the manager
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Pirin Blagoevgrad will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Emanuil Manev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Petar Karaangelov 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 Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 93, against Marek, 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.
7 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Hristo Popadiyn 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. Petar Karaangelov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Deyan Bojinov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Sportist Svoge will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hristo Popadiyn and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Hristo Popadiyn 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 had been thinking. Petar Karaangelov 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 is 18 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Svetoslav Dikov. 1‑0 against Sportist Svoge, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pirin Blagoevgrad will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Hristo Popadiyn and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ivan Vasilev 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pirin Blagoevgrad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kristiyan Boychev did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
He is 18, and nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michał Gaża and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Denislav Angelov 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.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sevlievo; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikola Bandev and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 3 years.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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 Deyan Bojinov to a room that had heard them before.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ludogorets is saying, and nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad is enjoying the guessing.
Georgi Tartov 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. Matheus Nunes has just signed for Pirin Blagoevgrad, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer went to Ludogorets 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
The deal with Septemvri is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Sofia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Botev Vratsa 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A brace, and Georgi Tartov takes the afternoon — 8.52
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georgi Tartov provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Pirin Blagoevgrad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Petar Karaangelov 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.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Slavia Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have shaken hands with Ludogorets; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Hristo Popadiyn 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 Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pirin Blagoevgrad have made the call to Slavia Sofia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A mark of 8.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Hristo Popadiyn 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.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Krasimir Kostov and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and CSKA Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Pirin Blagoevgrad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Pirin Blagoevgrad asked and Chernomorets Burgas 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 20 actions, 6.96, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Ludogorets II, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Deyan Bojinov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
In brief
The dugoutFilip Gigov has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.68, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Position 7, 24 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.
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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emanuil Manev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
14 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Karaangelov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Chernomorets Burgas scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Deyan Bojinov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pirin Blagoevgrad dressing room was either.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pirin Blagoevgrad will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Petar Karaangelov 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 easiest signature of my career.” Gustavo Silva and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Vasilev 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Emanuil Manev
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 Aleksandar Georgiev is on it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 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 Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Deyan Bojinov, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Hristo Popadiyn 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denislav Angelov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Deyan Lozev 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 Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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 Denislav Angelov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Marek next, and one man in the Pirin Blagoevgrad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pirin Blagoevgrad, another week without a signature from Aleksandar Georgiev.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Carvalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pirin Blagoevgrad told Samuel Pikolon something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Aleksandar Georgiev is on it.
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Deyan Bojinov to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Gabriel Noga and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Vasilev 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.
7.45, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pirin Blagoevgrad had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Deyan Bojinov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pirin Blagoevgrad is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Karaangelov 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.
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.
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. Pirin Blagoevgrad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Pirin Blagoevgrad would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
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 Pirin Blagoevgrad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Vasilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 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 0‑2 Deyan Bojinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
CSKA Sofia II will want this one forgotten quickly: 15‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pirin Blagoevgrad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Petar Karaangelov provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.78 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Hristo Popadiyn, marked 7.56, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Deyan Lozev 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Denislav Angelov 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 Petar Karaangelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against CSKA Sofia II in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Denislav Angelov. 2‑0 against Belasitsa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.17. 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pirin Blagoevgrad, another week without a signature from Aleksandar Georgiev.
20 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Emanuil Manev
That is the business done at Pirin Blagoevgrad 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.
Petar Karaangelov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ivan Vasilev 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Martin Dichev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Belasitsa.