Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
“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 Spartak Pleven know 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Donat Mehmeti 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Spartak Pleven, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marquinhos Pedroso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomasz Mokwa and Spartak Pleven agree another 1 years.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ludogorets is saying, and nobody at Spartak Pleven is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Spartak Pleven can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Spartak Pleven asked and Arda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8 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.
Spartak Pleven have made the call to Ludogorets. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ludogorets is saying, and nobody at Spartak Pleven is enjoying the guessing.
Spartak Pleven asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladimir Galchev 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Todor 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.
Ludogorets have accepted the money. What Spartak Pleven do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Chavdar Ivaylov 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Spartak Pleven will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Asparuh Smilkov 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartak Pleven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Spartak Pleven, and it is not being withdrawn.
Aleksandar Bastunov 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.” Marquinhos Pedroso and Spartak Pleven agree another 2 years.
“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 Spartak Pleven know 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Boycho Velichkov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak Pleven have done the hard part with Athens Kallithea, 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. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Spartak Pleven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aleksandar Bastunov 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.
Spartak Pleven 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.
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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Spartak Pleven is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartak Pleven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The deal with Arda 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Spartak Pleven asked and Arda 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 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 Spartak Pleven will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Di Cardoso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandar Bastunov signs something — a contract at Spartak Pleven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak Pleven can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with CSKA Sofia 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.
“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; Spartak Pleven are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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.
Spartak Pleven 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartak Pleven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven 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. Leonardo Rusciano has, at Spartak Pleven, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Asparuh Smilkov 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.
8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Asparuh Smilkov 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksandar Marinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Aleksandar Bastunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandar Bastunov signs something — a contract at Spartak Pleven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chavdar Ivaylov signs something — a contract at Spartak Pleven or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Kostadin Kotev has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spartak Pleven have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Spartak Pleven 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 Spartak Pleven, another week without a signature from Ivan Arsov.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Di Cardoso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven 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 Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Spartak Pleven, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartak Pleven can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Boycho Velichkov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Cătălin Itu 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. Stavros Panagiotou is living that version at Spartak Pleven, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Arsov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Spartak Pleven told Dimitar Todorov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Stavros Panagiotou arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartak Pleven will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shola Adelani. 1‑0 against Ludogorets II, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Something was said to Cătălin Itu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven 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 Aykut Ramadan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Boris Gruev.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Spartak Pleven, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Renato Valente has just signed for Spartak Pleven, and for once the answer mattered.
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Spartak Pleven.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Asparuh Smilkov 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 Spartak Pleven, another week without a signature from Chavdar Ivaylov.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Cătălin Itu 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; Spartak Pleven 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 Spartak Pleven, another week without a signature from Ventsislav Bengyuzov.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
7.93, 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Cătălin Itu 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Spartak Pleven 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kaloyan Tsvetanov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Spartak Pleven dressing room was either.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Asparuh Smilkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Dimitar Todorov 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.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak Pleven have done the hard part with Temperley, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cătălin Itu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leningradets have kept their man, and Spartak Pleven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aleksandar 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartak Pleven may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Spartak Pleven 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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 Cătălin Itu 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. Fratria have kept their man, and Spartak Pleven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Shola Adelani, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.96
A mark of 7.96 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spartak Pleven can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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 Shola Adelani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikolay Nikolov has just signed for Spartak Pleven, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven 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.
Spartak Pleven asked and Septemvri said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout18 Jan 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Kaloyan Tsvetanov to a room that had heard them before.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartak Pleven will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak Pleven have done the hard part with CSKA Sofia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Di Cardoso 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: 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Spartak Pleven, another week without a signature from Ventsislav Bengyuzov.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Spartak Pleven will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Shola Adelani, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.16
A mark of 8.16 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Spartak Pleven and CSKA Sofia II, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
“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; Spartak Pleven are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Spartak Pleven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vasil Kaymakanov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aykut Ramadan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Spartak Pleven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Di Cardoso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Boycho Velichkov 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: Aykut Ramadan. 1‑0 against Belasitsa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kristiyan Valkov and Spartak Pleven agree another 4 years.
Marked 6.73 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Position 8, 27 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.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout14 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.” Kaloyan Tsvetanov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ventsislav Bengyuzov provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Boris Gruev and Spartak Pleven agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Spartak Pleven will not try tonight.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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 Matej Jurička, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Di Cardoso 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Yantra in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.44, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Vasil Kaymakanov 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 5‑0, Kaloyan Tsvetanov could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Shola Adelani is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Ludogorets II next, and one man in the Spartak Pleven dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Spartak Pleven know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Shola Adelani, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 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.
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: Shola Adelani. 2‑1 against Dunav Ruse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kaloyan Tsvetanov on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Something was said to Matej Jurička and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Nov 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 1‑3 Kaloyan Tsvetanov left the room before anybody could ask which.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Spartak Pleven can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Kostadin Kotev has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chavdar Ivaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Fratria? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Spartak Pleven can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Di Cardoso 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Di Cardoso, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
19 new faces, and Spartak Pleven 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ventsislav Bengyuzov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Spartak Pleven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Spartak Pleven would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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 Spartak Pleven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boris Gruev, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Di Cardoso 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kaloyan Tsvetanov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Marek in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Spartak Pleven would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Spartak Pleven asked and Paksi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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. Spartak Pleven will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kaloyan Tsvetanov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Spartak Pleven dressing room was either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Spartak Pleven, another week without a signature from Di Cardoso.
“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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Pleven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chavdar Ivaylov 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.
Spartak Pleven asked and Westerlo 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 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Momchil Milanov 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. Bistra Krastev 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Spartak Pleven close the window on a squad of their own making
31 in and 20 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.
Spartak Pleven asked and Banik Ostrava 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 Spartak Pleven, another week without a signature from Chavdar Ivaylov.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Rosen Marinov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rosen Marinov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Spartak Pleven have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yani Pehlivanov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartak Pleven, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Gabriel Noga has moved up it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aykut Ramadan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Spartak Pleven needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Spartak Pleven will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The deal with Podbrezova 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 Vllaznia Shkodër is saying, and nobody at Spartak Pleven is enjoying the guessing.
Aleksandar Bastunov 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.
Spartak Pleven 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.
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Kaloyan Tsvetanov left the room before anybody could ask which.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Sevlievo had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Spartak Pleven did not stop to explain themselves.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: DAC Dunajska Streda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Spartak Pleven asked and Lokomotiv 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.
2 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 9.25 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against CSKA Sofia II, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Vasil Kaymakanov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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.
Ventsislav Bengyuzov 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. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and Spartak Pleven go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 19 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Aykut Ramadan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Spartak Pleven know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Aykut Ramadan has, at Spartak Pleven, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Pleven this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Spartak Pleven asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lyubomir Marcelinho 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. Mihail Krastev 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. Hristo 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktor Ivanov 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.
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. Spartak Pleven will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Rosen Marinov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yani Pehlivanov and Spartak Pleven agree another 1 years.
Yani Pehlivanov 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.
Spartak Pleven 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Rosen Marinov 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 on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Spartak Pleven will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Botev Plovdiv have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.