In November last year, Portuguese coach Filipe Coelho was announced as the replacement for Mirel Rădoi at Universitatea Craiova. Rădoi left the team without any explanation, despite having qualified the team for the Conference League groups and being in contention for the title.

The new Lusitan coach was met with significant skepticism in Bănie, both due to his rather sparse resume as a head coach, having only prepared lower league teams in Portugal for several years, and because he followed a coach who was well-regarded by the Olteni supporters.

Half a year later, Filipe Coelho has made his mark at Universitatea Craiova, winning the first two trophies of his career. Interestingly, all trophies won during the "Mihai Rotaru era" were achieved with foreign coaches at the helm of Universitatea Craiova.

In 2018, Devis Mangia won the Romanian Cup after a final against Hermannstadt, and in 2021, Marinos Ouzounidis led the team to the Romanian Cup and Supercup titles. Additionally, another foreign coach, Cristiano Bergodi, was just minutes away from bringing the title to Craiova in 2020, losing the "championship final" to CFR Cluj 3-1 after the Olteni had led 1-0.

Some of the messages posted on Universitatea Craiova's Facebook page when Filipe Coelho was installed as head coach in November 2025:

"Mamăăăă, let's hope he's not another Haralambie from Drăgăşani," "Ouzunidis, Petev, now another unknown coach. I bet he won't last the season," "So we got a second-tier coach. Incredible!" "They wanted a foreigner, they got a foreigner. A foreigner to football."