Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excursionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.67 — 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.
Alan Espeche 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 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Excursionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Romero 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. Atlético Tucumán have kept their man, and Excursionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sacachispas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
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 0‑1 Ricardo Rossi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Excursionistas, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excursionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sarmiento have kept their man, and Excursionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Alan Espeche 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 Franco Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Junior Pastorino and Excursionistas agree another 4 years.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ricardo Rossi on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Alan Espeche and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Excursionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Romero 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.
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Excursionistas.
The dugout21 May 2029
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.” Ricardo Rossi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Griguol, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 May 2029
Samir Meza is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Marked 4.52. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Horacio Igarzábal 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 Franco Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Santiago Galli is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It needed Jeremías Castro to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Villa Dálmine, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Excursionistas, another week without a signature from Ezequiel Muñoz.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Alan Espeche could not do
Alan Espeche 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 Franco Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gian Zoratti. 2‑0 against UAI Urquiza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“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 dugout30 Apr 2029
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.” Ricardo Rossi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excursionistas can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excursionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Excursionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Romero 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santino Lagomarsino, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ricardo Rossi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Excursionistas dressing room was either.
Villa San Carlos next, and one man in the Excursionistas 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. Excursionistas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ezequiel Muñoz
Alan Espeche 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.
A 3‑1 win over Deportivo Laferrere, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Franco Romero 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jeremías Ramírez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Ricardo Rossi could afford to be generous.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Excursionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Excursionistas can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezequiel Muñoz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excursionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santino Lagomarsino is living that version at Excursionistas, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Griguol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Samir Meza has written the date down.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Horacio Igarzábal keeps the shirt for now, at Excursionistas's convenience rather than his own.
“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 Excursionistas, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Excursionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Franco Romero 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A new face in his position, and Horacio Igarzábal suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Excursionistas have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Excursionistas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volos NPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim van der Leij 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.
“I watch every Volos NPS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aris Thessaloniki runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Volos NPS 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kazincbarcika waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Volos NPS is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volos NPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Volos NPS asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tim van der Leij 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.
Add another name to the list: Asteras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nikos Christogeorgos. The answer from Volos NPS has not changed — yet.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Volos NPS, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volos NPS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Volos NPS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Hamza Mendyl 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.
Volos NPS offered $74.0K; PAS Giannina 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.
The phone has started ringing about Stefanos Katsikas again, and this time the name on the line is Hellas Syros. Volos NPS are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 watch every Volos NPS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pafos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ivan Nevistić is in the works
The mood at Volos NPS has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Volos NPS have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Volos NPS offered $600.0K; Panathinaikos 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $650.8K — a club that wants Tino Kadewere enough to be asked twice.
Volos NPS asked and Lanús said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tate Elliott 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.
Volos NPS have made the call to Volendam. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad10 Jul 2028
6 new faces, and Volos NPS 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.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volos NPS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Volos NPS is running low.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Panathinaikos were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Julián Chicco enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Panathinaikos this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Hamza Mendyl 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.
Volos NPS asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Volos NPS are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volos NPS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Panathinaikos this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$200.0K on the table at Hellas Syros. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miloš Jović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The mood at Volos NPS has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diadiouly Camara has just signed for Volos NPS, and for once the answer mattered.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Panetolikos were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Volos NPS asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Nikos Christogeorgos again, and this time the name on the line is AEL Larisa. Volos NPS are listening politely and promising nothing.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Athens Kallithea waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Volos NPS is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Mlada Boleslav for Anestis Mythou was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $200.2K — a club that wants Diadiouly Camara enough to be asked twice.
$580.0K was the most the club would pay and Olympiacos were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
$190.0K on the table at Iraklis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Kifisia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
In brief
SquadMiloš Jović falls out with a teammate over standards
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Volos NPS, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The offer from Kalamata for Matías González was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Volos NPS hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $640.0K — a club that wants Erik Hamza enough to be asked twice.
$530.0K on the table at Olympiacos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volos NPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
18 appearances and 10 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giorgos Charalampoglou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Volos NPS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Aaron Leya Iseka may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The mood at Volos NPS has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Jović 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.
Tate Elliott 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 words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Jović 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Keidi Bare signs something — a contract at Volos NPS 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.
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volos NPS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Hamza Mendyl 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.
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 Volos NPS would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Volos NPS says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
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 Theodosis Machairas has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Volos NPS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volos NPS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Hamza Mendyl 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Miloš Jović 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.
“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 Volos NPS will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The mood at Volos NPS has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Jović 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.
“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 Volos NPS know it.
10 goals in 18 games at Athens Kallithea — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Volos NPS updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The words a physio says slowly. 129 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Keidi Bare signs something — a contract at Volos NPS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitris Theodoridis 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.
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volos NPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The bid was some way short and Volos NPS did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Miloš Jović 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.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Volos NPS says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volos NPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miloš Jović 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 name of Spyros Angelidis has come up in conversations Volos NPS were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Sotirios Galanopoulos leaves with $50.2K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Lazaros Lamprou has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Volos NPS are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexei Koșelev 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
155 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volos NPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lazaros Lamprou signs something — a contract at Volos NPS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
163 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volos NPS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Volos NPS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Miloš Jović 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 at Volos NPS 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Keidi Bare signs something — a contract at Volos NPS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Volos NPS that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Uroš Čejić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
20 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Volos NPS can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
0‑3 against Olympiacos, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Volos NPS know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Volos NPS asked and Panserraikos 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 Volos NPS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sotirios Galanopoulos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Kifisia have accepted the money. What Volos NPS do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Atromitos will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Giorgos Papadopoulos has pre-agreed a move to Volos NPS, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Volos NPS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Volos NPS has been clear about where Giannis Kargas stands, which is more than many ever get.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Volos NPS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Volos NPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Miloš Jović 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Anestis Mythou has his answer from Volos NPS; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Hatim Es-Saouabi is on it.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nabil Makni’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Volos NPS needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Volos NPS has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutNabil Makni knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Volos NPS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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 1‑2 Sotirios Galanopoulos left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Volos NPS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Ezequiel Muñoz arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
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.