It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri 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 Valentine Ozornwafor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia y Esgrima have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Faiz Mattoir is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentine Ozornwafor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Septemvri and Dobrudzha in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Iliev. 4‑2 against Dobrudzha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Nikola Iliev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.64. 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Nikola Iliev will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Septemvri escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Septemvri close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Dzhuneyt Ali 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 brace, and André Liberal takes the afternoon — 9.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. André Liberal provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kubrat Onasci 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Nikola Iliev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
He 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eskimó is living that version at Septemvri, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Deportivo Riestra keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentine Ozornwafor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Stoyan Stoichkov had Septemvri level again within 4 minutes, and Lokomotiv Plovdiv never got to play with a lead at all.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simão Lopes is living that version at Septemvri, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Benfica is saying, and nobody at Septemvri is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almagro have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 Septemvri, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. André Lopes has just signed for Septemvri, and for once the answer mattered.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Dominik Ivkič 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Plamen Tunchev 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dominik Ivkič.
Stipe Vulikić 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 Dzhuneyt Ali 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Iliev 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.
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentine Ozornwafor 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Septemvri and Botev Plovdiv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Septemvri will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Stipe Vulikić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dzhuneyt Ali, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Divine Teah 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Septemvri dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Simeon Despodov to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutFaiz Mattoir knocks on the manager's door
Stipe Vulikić 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.
Levski left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Divine Teah 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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 CSKA Sofia.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Dzhuneyt Ali falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Simeon Despodov to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Yoan Baurenski and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Septemvri 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stipe Vulikić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Septemvri needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
12 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Divine Teah 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 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.” Simeon Despodov, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutDominik Ivkič asks for a word with the manager
Stipe Vulikić 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. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mihail Stoyanov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kiril Slavchev 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentine Ozornwafor 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.
Stipe Vulikić 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 8.05 — 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Divine Teah is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Septemvri will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Minute 88, against Botev Vratsa, 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Faiz Mattoir
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Faiz Mattoir has come out of that comparison in the side, and Septemvri have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Dobrudzha will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Septemvri were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Septemvri and Dobrudzha, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Divine Teah, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Faiz Mattoir on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Septemvri and Spartak 1918.
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Septemvri. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arnas Voitinovičius is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Stipe Vulikić 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhuneyt Ali 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martin Bozhikov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lachezar Atanasov 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. CSKA 1948 had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
3‑0, and Nikola Iliev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Septemvri tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Nikola Iliev takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikola Iliev provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Stipe Vulikić 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 Dzhuneyt Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Lokomotiv Plovdiv spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Septemvri will try not to make too much of 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Septemvri has been clear about where Martin Hristov stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.
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 Faiz Mattoir is on it.
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.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Nikola Iliev takes the afternoon — 9.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikola Iliev provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhuneyt Ali 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Simeon Despodov kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Septemvri will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arnas Voitinovičius is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Stipe Vulikić 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Arda were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Iliev 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Krasimir Petkov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Todor Bozhikov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Arda made Septemvri work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Septemvri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentine Ozornwafor 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 run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Septemvri are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Septemvri 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Septemvri have done the hard part with Slavia Prague, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Dzhuneyt Ali 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 Valentine Ozornwafor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Sep 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Simeon Despodov to a room that had heard them before.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Slavia Sofia paid $100.0K and Septemvri took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Botev Plovdiv had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Lokomotiv Plovdiv go through and Septemvri go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Septemvri have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dzhuneyt Ali has just signed for Septemvri, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marsel Bibishkov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.52
A mark of 8.52 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Septemvri offered $2.7M; CSKA 1948 said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Septemvri this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Septemvri have gone to CSKA 1948 with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Septemvri had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Stipe Vulikić 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.
Septemvri asked and CSKA 1948 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Slavia Sofia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Preslav Georgiev. The answer from Septemvri has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentine Ozornwafor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 95, against Levski, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Septemvri are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Septemvri have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA 1948 have kept their man, and Septemvri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nikolay Stoyanov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Chavdar Popov 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. Boris Iliev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Slavia Sofia had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Septemvri did not stop to explain themselves.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Galin Grigorov has, at Septemvri, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Stipe Vulikić 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.
Septemvri asked and Catania said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.