Article by Daniel Grigore – Published Thursday, October 30, 2025, 4:45 p.m. / Updated Thursday, October 30, 2025, 5:52 p.m.
Today, CFR Cluj officially announced the installation of Daniel Pancu as head coach. The former striker has the mission to get rid of a team that has won only two games out of 14 in this championship.
Victor Pițurcă, former Romanian coach, last in the circuit at the end of 2019, believes that “the prospects are not very good”. Pițurcă considers the CFR party to be modest.
Victor Pițurcă puts Daniel Pancu on guard: “You can count the good players from CFR on your fingers!”
“The moment is not exactly a happy one. The CFR is going through extremely difficult times and I could not say that the prospects are very good. It seems to me that the CFR has rather modest players of average value. Count the good players out there on your fingers. I'm not at all impressed with their batch and it shows.
We must not blame only the technical management. Let's also think about the lot, the players. If the team is good, at some point you may not even need a coach. The CFR has a modest game and hence the results.
I hope Daniel will come with a new breath, to find solutions. It is not simple, it needs a period of adaptation. You have to know the team, the players, impose the tactics and so on.
He has a certain strategy as a coach and he has to impose it. But you always need valuable players to do this,” said Pițurcă at “Liga DigiSport”.
Victor Pițurcă: “Slimani seems to me to have passed”
Islam Slimani. PHOTO: Imago Images
The former coach has not been outdone by newcomers with impressive CVs such as Kurt Zouma, Marcus Coco and Islam Slimani:
“I saw them on the field, with modest developments. Maybe they haven't played for a while, maybe they need accommodation, but the valuable player is immediately visible. Slimani seems quite slow to me, passable (no – sigh). Finally, I can't say 100% because I haven't had a professional eye to watch the CFR at work. But I think I saw what everyone saw.”
1 goaland a goal pass has Slimani (37 years old) in 5 appearances for CFR Cluj
Victor Pițurcă, about Mandorlini: “If you don't train in the second or third league in Italy, I don't know how you can come to train at CFR”
Pițurcă did not take care of Andrea Mandorlini either, dismissed by CFR Cluj for the second time in less than two years.
“CFR is a top team in Romania, but it's a difficult time. If he passes it well, he will enter the top of the coaches in the first league. Our young coaches have problems, because the owners generally don't count on them.
I bring as the CFR also brought, a coach from Italy.
If you don't coach in the second or third league in Italy, I don't know how you can come to coach at CFR. He probably had a close connection with the boss… Our young coaches don't get much [șansa]”, he added.
