Position 2, 37 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Martin Nikolov scored, was marked 7.68, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1 for Martin Dichev, marked 7.97, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Valentin Petrov is 22, 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 had been thinking. Valentin Yoskov 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.
Position 2, 34 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.
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Danail Iliev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dunav Ruse defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
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 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.
Petar Marinov 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Position 2, 29 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.
Petar Marinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Yoskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Danail Iliev chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Danail Iliev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yahcuroo Roemer’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pirin Blagoevgrad needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martin Nikolov 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.
“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.
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. Valentin Yoskov 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 Petar Marinov.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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 Andrian Dimitrov is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 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 Martin Nikolov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Petar Marinov 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.
A 2‑0 win over Sportist Svoge, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this 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. Valentin Yoskov 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pirin Blagoevgrad told Petar Marinov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Danail Iliev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
5 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Yoskov 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 2‑0 win over Spartak Pleven, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valentin Petrov and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Danail Iliev on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aleksandar Angelov is living that version at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and it tends to show in the first month.
Petar Marinov 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. Valentin Yoskov 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentin Petrov and Pirin Blagoevgrad agree another 4 years.
Spartak Pleven 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 is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Aleksandar Angelov is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Petar Marinov 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. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pirin Blagoevgrad.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Yahcuroo Roemer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
16 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Lovro Bizjak
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lovro Bizjak has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pirin Blagoevgrad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
15 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kristiyan Bachev is 19, 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 had been thinking. Valentin Yoskov 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 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.
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.
“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.
“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 Tomás Prost.
Petar Marinov 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. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Danail Iliev, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
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.
Petko Ganev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomás Prost has, at Pirin Blagoevgrad, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Pirin Blagoevgrad will try again when the window opens; Dunav Ruse may not be selling by then.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutNikola Kolev asks for a word with the manager
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivaylo Ivanov did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 deal with Dunav Ruse 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Yoskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Danail Iliev could afford to be generous.
A 2‑0 win over Sportist Svoge, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Evgeni Georgiev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak 1918 have kept their man, and Pirin Blagoevgrad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.84, and 2 involvements.
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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Danail Iliev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Krasimir Miloshev's mistake
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Kristiyan Bachev scored in the 85th minute, Vihren had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Pirin Blagoevgrad took the lot.
The deal with Beerschot 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.
Petar Marinov 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 Valentin Yoskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Kristiyan Bachev 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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The shirt still fits. Valentin Yoskov 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.
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 Valentin Yoskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stefan Galchev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kaloyan Yankov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Petar Marinov has just signed for Pirin Blagoevgrad, and for once the answer mattered.
Add another name to the list: Hebar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Krasimir Kostov. The answer from Pirin Blagoevgrad has not changed — yet.
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.
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.