Ups and downs around the league. Marek (Stanke Dimitrov, today – Dupnitza) was inevitably down. With the whole league on guard, they had predictably rough season no matter how they played. They were 13th in the fall and dropped down a place in the spring, finishing 14th with 26 points – 13 from the fall and 13 in the spring.
There was no crisis, but the club did not get any new players, depending on very short squad. They came close to relegation, but curiously this season was the most successful one in the history of the club.
Botev (Vratza) was in inevitable decline – the signs were obvious perhaps since 1975. Familiar signs… the strong generation of the first half of the 1970s aged, the rebuilding did not start on time, and the replacements were not really strong. The team still depended on the veterans, but they were no longer in great shape and retired one after another. Currently 6 remained, all 30 years old – behind them were run of the mill players.
Botev was 14th in the fall and 13th at the end of the season. They were the team with the leakiest defense in the league. Survival was the everything on their minds, but it was clear that the future would be worse.
The next club in crisis – or on the verge of one – was Akademik (Sofia). They were 15th in the fall, but pulled themselves together in the spring and finished 8th. Not bad, but the standing was deceptive: Akademik was past their great years and new squad had to be made quickly. There was new coach already, but the trouble was old and well known: the limited resources of the club made recruiting of talented players difficult. Especially for a club which by their very design depended only on outside players – a ‘students club’ meant only ‘students’ can play for it. However, students graduate and leave… so far Akademik was able to recruit good players. Not great stars, but strong enough and most importantly – compatible to each other, so a strong team was made. But replacement was questionable. The newcomers were not bad, but somehow there was no chemistry and team looked more impressive on paper than on the pitch.
Somehow Akademik had the wrong players and most importantly no new leaders emerged to build a team around them. Ironically, players from this squad were to play big role in Bulgarian football in the early 1980s – Alyosha Dimitrov, Sasho Borissov, Plamen Tzvetkov, Krassimir Goranov – but for other clubs, not Akademik. There were also peculiar for Akademik players: Borislav Gyorev was in the squad since 1975 and so far played a single match! He was to stay quite long without playing – when he finally did, people had no idea he was in the team for years already. He was not the only player in such anonymous situation in Akademik and hard to figure out why. But Akademik was going down, that much was clear, unless they made fundamental changes and entirely different team.
The biggest decline happened to Lokomotiv (Plovdiv). It was similar to the case of Botev (Vratza) both in timing and circumstance: aging, noticeable since 1975. But Lokomotiv, one of the brightest Bulgarian clubs in the early 1970s, faced peculiar problem: a group of veterans and a group of very talented youngsters without anybody in between. No good players in the range of 24-27 years old. The youngsters lacked experience and were still shaky. They also were tempted to leave… already three very good strikers left: Krassimir Manolov (Akademik Sofia), Georgy Fidanov and Nikolay Kurbanov (both Akademik Svishtov). Thus, Lokomotiv was perhaps reluctant to unload veterans – the great Christo Bonev was still great, perhaps the goalkeeper Stancho Bonchev and the right winger Georgy Vassilev were still useful and inspirational, but Gancho Peev, Todor Ivanov, Nedyalko Stamboliev, Yordan Yankov, and Assen Balabanov were clearly over the hill. Unfortunately, without middle aged players of some quality, the veterans were kept in hope of helping with experience and influence. The youngsters were not so many for complete change of team – Vesselin Balevsky, Ruzhdy Kerimov, and Krassimir Chavdarov were the brightest, but experience suggested caution… Manolov, Kurbanov, and Fidanov left and there was no guarantee the others were to be different. And they were not… soon the trio was gone, joining CSKA and Levsky. Lokomotiv was in impossible situation – they had to keep veterans as long as they could, a desperate choice further weakening the club. There was no remedy for years – Lokomotiv was shaped this way until the end of the 1980s: a few great players, the rest rabble and promising but row youngsters. And the club lost permanently its leading position in Bulgarian football, reduced to erratic performance.
A shadow of the former great team – few venerable veterans, few talented youngsters, and bunch of nobodies. Lokomotiv took very rough path, going largely down.
Another two clubs were in similar situation: Sliven and Pirin (Blagoevgrad). Pirin was a replica of Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) – the key players, who propelled the club to the first division four years ago were still the key players – all of them over 30 or at least near the that: Christo Christov, Nikolay Radlev, Popmikhailov, Christo Bakalov, Georgy Luleysky, Yordan Samokovliisky, Metody Stoyanov, Petar Petrov, Borislav Hadzhiev, Boris Nikolov. A whole regular team, when the newcomer Ivan Petrov (from Etar) was added. Practically nobody was in the middle range of 25-28, but there was a group of promising youngsters: Kabranov, Dagalov, Mularov, Branimir Kochev, Spassov, and Petar Tzvetkov. The team was obviously aging, yet, it was curiously different than Lokomotiv (Plovdiv): the veterans seemingly were getting better with age and the fate of the team depending largely on them. This was more pronounced in later years, so, in this season the team simply appeared in grave danger: too many veterans. Decline was clearly envisioned and so far Pirin made only one significant change: they got the masterbuilder of the strong Akademik (Sofia) team of few years back – the coach Danko Roev. Alas, no miracle happened.
Pirin finished high in the table – 7th – but this is misleading: with 29 points, they were only 4 points better than the relegated ZhSK Spartak. The team played evenly – 14 points in the fall and 15 in the spring. For the moment, the old feet kept Pirin out of real trouble. Only for the moment… Yet, this season perhaps marks the beginning of permanent phenomenon: the bunch of youngsters was just the first crop of the talent developed in the youth system of Pirin, using also careful selection through the belonging region, South-Western corner of Bulgaria. Since then and still going strong today, the area is arguably the top developer of young talent (Dimitar Berbatov is from there, for instance). And it was also the undoing of Pirin… the club was unable to keep their talent and is constantly robbed by the big clubs from Sofia.
Sliven is hard to really described – as an Army club, they were closely related to CSKA (Sofia), and their fate largely depended on what kind of players the ‘mother club’ took or gave. Thus, Sliven fluctuated widely, but by 1977 something worse was developing: normally, CSKA sent young talent to Sliven to see how they developed. Then took them back. Sliven was hardly able to build strong team on its own. They had to play regularly those sent by CSKA too. But by 1977 CSKA was not sending only young talent – various reserves and veterans started coming. Depending on their form, Sliven played better or worse, there was no telling in advance. The trouble was a relative decline, hard to see and even harder to fix – the dependency was too big. Sliven was slowly sinking, but since they were never a very strong club, even this was not very visible – they finished 12th, thanks to better goal-difference than Botev (Vratza).
Sergy Yotzov, a former CSKA player, and a former CSKA coach, was at the helm. He worked well with Sliven, but… here is the list of former CSKA player in the squad this year: Stoyan Yordanov (captain, 33 years old, still a national team player at the beginning of the year, when he was still with CSKA. Deemed too old and sent to Sliven), Kiril Lyubomirov (25 years old defender, who never really satisfied CSKA and not exactly a starter when he was with them), Todor Simov (28), Plamen Yankov (26), and Yordan Christov (24) – the ‘eternal reserves’ of CSKA in the first half of the 1970s. The club eventually did not need them anymore and moved them at first to Trakia (Plovdiv). They did not excel there either… now they were in Sliven. Christov was a pleasant surprise in the 1976-77 season, when he finished as the second league goal-scorer with 17 goals, but nobody was fooled – he and the rest of the former CSKA players were not going to improve – they reached their limits and long ago. Hardly a core of players to build a team around them. Hardly players trying to impress anybody – they knew there was no going back to CSKA. But they were taking half of the starting team… and Yordanov became captain as soon as he arrived, despite that the fine sweeper of Sliven and national team regular for years, Nikolay Arabov, was already captaining the team for few years. Dependency was not looking good – rather, guaranteeing trouble.
Those were the declining clubs, but others went the opposite way. None really went high, but they very promising season. Two of them were the newcomers. Since Chernomoretz (Bourgas) and Cherno More (Varna) were not confident winners – both won thanks to better goal-difference – neither was expected to suddenly shine. Rather, both teams were expected to struggle – Cherno More had almost the same squad which was relegated in 1976 and Chernomoretz spent about 5 years in the Second Division unable to win promotion. By now Chernomoretz hardly interested anyone outside their hometown – some bunch of unknown players. Even their new recruits were suspect: Ivan Pritargov was released from CSKA, where he already lost his place in the starting team. No longer the bright young candidate for the national team. The central defender Vasko Nedelchev was never a star and with age he slipped down – his best years were with Akademik (Sofia), then he moved to Lokomotiv (Sofia) and had shaky spell there until let go. Experience was the obvious value of both and Chernomoretz badly lacked that. Cherno More practically did not take any new players. Both teams played surprisingly well in the fall and maintained steady performance in the spring.
Chernomoretz finished 10th at the end – on the surface, nothing special since they had 27 points : three more than the last in the table. But they were the only club bellow 5th place with positive goal-difference: 44-43. And they played entertaining football. Of course, Chernomoretz seemingly depended on the form of their only two true stars – Totko Dremsizov and Ivan Pritargov.
Pritargov and Dremsizov – the legends of Chernomoretz.
Both were centre-forwards, which looked like a problem before the start of the season. But here was the first surprize: Dremsizov, arguably the best ever player of the club, suddenly appeared as the last defender, a sweeper more than libero, but still going ahead on occasion. Pritargov was in front of attack. Yet, the real good news were the unknown youngsters, all of them coming from Cernomoretz’s youth system and debuting in the top division. They had little experience with second division too – so young, they hardly played real men’s football. They were also everywhere: Papazov (24) between the goalposts, Ilchev (18) and Deliminkov (20) in defense, Yovchev (18) in midfield, Gochev (19) in attack, the Madzharov brothers – Georgy (24) and Nikolay (20) – in midfield and attack. Experienced veterans between 27 and 30 completed the starting eleven – Peyu Nikolov on the left wing, Pazachev and the newcomer Nedelchev in defense, and the never great starter, but reliable back-up goalie Drazho Stoyanov (24). Complete unknown midfielder found in a small second division club suddenly fitted well as a playmaker – Mutafchiev (24). The youngsters invigorated the veterans, the blend was good and there were enough reliable players on the bench. Chernomoretz was still too row, but the future was bright: the youngsters just needed little time ti adapt to first division and add experience. One of them was soon to become one of the best Bulgarian players: Roussy Gochev. A speedy, technical, and great scoring pocket-size centre-forward, Gochev rarely played his original position in Chernomoretz, Lavski-Spartak, and the national team – he had always tough competition of bigger or just limited to this very post players and played mostly as right-winger. The ‘curse’ started at home… Dremsizov, Pritargov, and even one more player – the little known Parvan Donchev, a Lokomotiv (Sofia) hopefull few years back – were all centre-forwards quite useless at the wings. But Gochev made strong impression in his very first season despite the competition.
Cherno More went shoulder to shoulder with Chernomoretz: both teams were next to each other during the whole season, Cherno more was just a place above Chernomoretz both in fall and spring. They finished 9th and were the specialists of the tie this year: 12 matches, the most ties in the league. Looked like careful and calculating strategy, but it was a different story – Cherno More made the best of a team which may not have been great, but had experience and was at the best age.
The squad was familiar in Bulgaria for years – but before most of the boys were young, shaky, often reserves. Cherno More depended largely on veterans a few years back – now there was none of the impressive old names. The change of generation was difficult: it led the club down to second division – but it was done and there was new leader: the excellent sweeper Todor Marev (24-years old and occasional national team player – he deserved to play more, but was neglected because of strong competition). At least before the start of the season the rest of the squad was considered rather pedestrian – not very great players, but at the best age. Cherno More did not have a single player over 30 – the oldest one was 28. Most were of one generation, aging between 24 and 26. Damyan Georgiev, once upon a time a big hopeful, was a leftover veteran at 27! And these players were together for few years already, they knew each other inside and out. Well balanced, if not starry squad, they not only had a good season, but actually improved as players, were noticed and considered for various national teams – actually, the youngest ones, relatively unknown so far: Georgy Velinov (20, soon to rise to real stardom and to become one of the top 10 all-time Bulgarian goalkeepers), Yancho Bogomilov (22, the younger brother of perhaps the all-time best Cherno More players and one the major stars in the second half of the 1960s, Stefan Bogomilov. Unlike his goal-scoring brother, Yancho was a stopper), Ivan Voychev (20, right full back, who burst this year and expected to develop into a star – but this never happened), and Rafi Rafiev (22, centre-forward so far unheard of, but soon to be included in the Bulgarian Olympic team). This squad surely had may be three strong years ahead of it – the boys were just reaching their peak.
The third team was the most promising: Trakia (Plovdiv) was on the verge of collapse just the previous season. Familiar trouble – generational change. One team getting too old and the club – late to start rebuilding. The signs of crisis were visible since 1974. The problem was aggravated by something else: Trakia had traditionally strong youth system and talented teenagers were popping up regularly. But they were snatched quickly by CSKA – after all, Trakia was army club and subservient to ‘big mamma’. They lost Ivan Pritargov as soon as he became the top league scorer. They lost Spas Dzhevizov the next year. The future Golden Shoe winner Georgy Slavkov was taken even before becoming regular in his home club (and returned back just as quickly, for the youngster was too weak for CSKA yet). Other talents faded away very quickly – Iliya Barashky, a regular at 18 and seen as sure national player in short time, was now playing in second division for Arda (Kardzhaly) – at 23 he already was lost. He was not the only ‘lost one’ and the future of Trakia was suddenly very problematic – the veterans were retiring, or, if still playing, fading away. Yet, in a nick of time the danger was avoided – it did not look like that before the1977-78 started: it looked like the club desperately decided to play with their junior team. Too many too young – certain disaster. But the teenagers finished 4th – with small, yet clearly visible difference from the rest of the league – Trakia was positioned separately, 2 points from tight pack of 12 clubs. They were far behind the battle for medals – 6 points behind the third placed team – but given their youth and inexperience, it was great. A year or two was needed for the boys to get experience, to mature. The future was clearly theirs.
Only two veterans were left – the great Dinko Dermendzhiev, who played his last season, and full back Vangel Delev, also at the end of his career. The rest were very young and pushing ahead: the best example if the case of Atanas Garabsky: he was 22 years old national team player, rapidly becoming a reserve in Trakia! The competition was younger still… the ‘veterans’ were Kosta Bosakov (a sweeper formerly of Lokomotiv Plovdiv, 27), Dimitar Vichev (former reserve goalkeeper of Beroe, 26), the ‘late bloomer’ Kosta Tanev, debutant at 24… the rest of the squad was to shape most of the 1980s: Georgy Slavkov (19), Slavcho Horozov (21), Kostadin Kostadinov (18), Angel Kalburov (22), Anton Milkov (24), Kiril Peychev (21), Aleksandar Ivanov (21), Petar Zekhtinsky (22), Atanas Marinov (19). It is difficult even to say who was the greatest of them – all played for the national team, but how to measure them? Slavkov got the Golden Shoe indeed, but in 1977-78 he was still playing second fiddle to the ‘true big talent’ – Aleksandar Ivanov. Zekhtinsky probably ranked lower than Milkov, Kalburov, and Horozov . K. Kostadinov was just a hopeful, rapidly taking the place of another recent hopeful – his brother Petar Kostadinov, dangerously old at 22. So much talent, some had to sit on the bench (unfortunately, some for years – Peychev was the biggest looser). Trakia was coming back with massive talent.
Here they are at this point of time. If they stayed… but it was difficult to keep exactly this team: Dermendzhiev and Delev retired, Milkov went to Levski-Spartak; Kalburov and Slavkov to CSKA, Aleksandar Ivanov also left (to Lokomotiv Plovdiv) when he lost his place to Slavkov. The rest remained, more juniors were added. Some were national team regulars for years, others had no luck and played little, but still they did. Enormously talented bunch, establishing itself at once. Since these players are to stay for many years, no need to point them out on the photo. Instead, a curiosity: 4 different kits are used in the photo above. Different variations of stripes, but hard to tell were they really different kits or just clumsy made two varieties. Such discrepancies were used often before 1970 – even by the biggest clubs in the world! For 1977-78 it was an unique look, which may be ascribed only to one thing: Trakia was still using old-fashioned ‘no-name’ kit. As soon as they dressed in Adidas uniformity prevailed. Which happened during this very season.
Lastly, two teams performed according to expectations – Slavia (Sofia) and Beroe (Stara Zagora). They finished 5th and 6th , dropping slightly from their 3rd and 5th positions in the fall. Certain similarity between these clubs: they were both moody and unpredictable for years, capable of gret ups and downs. Beroe lost their wonderful striker Petko Petkov between seasons, when he was lured by Akademik (Svishtov), but they had new talent – Stoycho Mladenov – in his place. Twenty years old, but he already played remarkable season, scored a lot, and now had a chance to do better, for in the absence of Petkov, he was not only the key striker, but moved to his original position – centre-forward. To a point, Mladenov was unlucky like Roussy Gochev of Chernomoretz – because of competition, he played almost his entire career at the left wing.
Beroe was able to change generations rather smoothly – only three players of their great earlier squad remained – the goalkeeper Todor Krastev (32), the midfielder Zhelyu Zhelev (25), and the right winger Boris Kirov (32) and the skeleton of new leaders was already shaped: Kancho Kasherov (21) and Tenyo Minchev (23) in defense, Stefan Naydenov (20) and Georgy Stoyanov (22) in midfield, and Stoycho Mladenov (20) in attack. Beroe had to deal with specific problem – they were regular donors of CSKA and their strength depended largely on the ability to replace quickly players taken from CSKA. Stoycho Mladenov eventually went to CSKA, becoming a legend of that club, not Beroe.
Slavia had its ‘golden team’, the most promising one in Bulgaria a few years back. By 1977-78 it was at its best age and supposed to be among the title contenders. But Slavia was Slavia… moody, inconsistent, playing fantastic football one match only to collapse in the next. Nothing new this year – for instance, two Slavia players led (jointly with Stoycho Mladenov) the scoring chart in the fall – Andrey Zhelyazkov and Georgy Minchev with 12 goals. The team was 3rd, 4 points behind the 1st placed. They had a chance for the title… but they finished the season with insignificant record: 12 wins, 6 ties, and 12 losses. Fifth. Typical Slavia.
Sitting, from left: Emil Mikhailov, Stoycho Berberov, Georgy Minchev, Vanyo Kostov, Tchavdar Tzvetkov, Atanas Aleksandrov, Milcho Evtimov.
Middle row: Kiril Angelov – coach, Petar Miladinov, Georgy Dermendzhiev, Bozhidar Grigorov – playing assistant coach, Andrey Zhelyazkov, Ivan Iliev, Trendafil Terziisky – assistant coach.
Third row: Stoycho Stefanov, Ilyaz Aliev, Georgy Gugalov, Botyo Malinov, Valentin Modev, Ivan Chakarov, Georgy Tikhanov.
At the time much was said about this team – in the summer of 1977 they won one of the groups in the old format of the Intertotto tournament. The first Bulgarian club to do so and it looked like big success because Hamburger SV played in the same group. The Germans did not try hard, fielding mostly reserves, but Slavia prevailed. Because of that it was thought they will be the major force in Bulgarian football at last. Apart from their notorious moodiness, the reason Slavia was not a big factor can be easily seen in the squad: it is very thin. About 15 players, three of them goalkeepers,were practically the team. Some were nearing retiring (Grigorov and Evtimov), others reached their potential and no longer developed (Chakarov, Tikhanov, Gugalov). None of the young reserves was really promising and none made a name for himself – actually, they disappeared quickly without a trace (Mikhailov, Berberov, Stefanov, and the 4th goalkeeper on the picture Modev, who was the juniors national team regular at the time). The regular starters played together for many years already and it was becoming clear that somebody new had to be added to them and shake up settled patterns. But no such player appeared – their best addition was former Levski-Spartak junior, who did not make any impression in his first club, Botyo Malinov. He fitted well in Slavia, but he was no star and no leader. Strange was the coach too – Kiril Angelov was virtually unknown and soon sunk back into anonymity. So, the most interesting things about this Slavia photo was trivia: one more example of the innocent 1970s – players dressed with Adidas kit, but the coaches sporting Puma gear. The second interesting thing is something practically unheard of in Bulgaria so far – a playing coach. Bozhidar Grigorov was both active player and assistant coach – one has to look really hard for another precedent from 1945 to the end of the 1980s! Grigorov was 32 and perhaps able to play 3-4 more years, but his new position settled it… he was to retire soon and… to make no impression as a coach.