15 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ermis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alexandros Spontas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ermis needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Diamantis Chouchoumis 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.
14 combined actions and 6.81. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rubén Rochina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 13, 4 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Anorthosis in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Serif Berbic a promise
Player ratingsEmile Samyn beats them one at a time
13 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ermis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Labros Ioannou 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Georgios Laban 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Rubén Rochina 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.
Emile Samyn 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pieros Laifis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Ermis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén Rochina 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ermis can tell you which week it ends in.
16 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ermis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Diamantis Chouchoumis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Rubén Rochina 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.
Something was said to Christos Karanatsios and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pieros Laifis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ermis dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against APOEL? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
7 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ermis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ermis and Aris, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 22 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 had been thinking. Rubén Rochina 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pieros Laifis after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
AEL go through and Ermis go home, 0‑6 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
Ermis are taken apart by AEL — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-6. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ermis can tell you which week it ends in.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ermis and AEL, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ermis 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 Rubén Rochina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.16 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Ermis had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Sep 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.” Pieros Laifis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
That is the business done at Ermis 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.
Jonathan Hendrickx 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michalis Sofroniou is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pakhtakor have kept their man, and Ermis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Sep 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 0‑1 Pieros Laifis left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Ermis will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.