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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at PAOK.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Zé Leite was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zé Leite provided it, and the 9.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Gerard Deulofeu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.67. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Andrija Živković 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Thanasis Mitroglou after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PAOK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Andrija Živković 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 had been thinking. Taison 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for PAOK. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zé Leite. 1‑0 against AEL Larisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PAOK told Jiří Pavlenka something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Vicente Guaita 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Diego Costa 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thanasis Mitroglou after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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 Vicente Guaita has written the date down.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taison 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.
Dimitris Giannoulis 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Zé Leite was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thanasis Mitroglou on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Fedor Chalov’s exile
The dugoutJonjoe Kenny has become a man the manager trusts
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Magomed Ozdoev, marked 7.47, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrija Živković was on a different afternoon to everybody else
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at PAOK.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Thanasis Mitroglou kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. PAOK will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear 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.
PAOK offered $6.7M; Real Sociedad 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Pakhtakor is saying, and nobody at PAOK is enjoying the guessing.
PAOK asked and Las Palmas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at PAOK 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.
“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 PAOK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Diego Costa 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Vicente Guaita
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andrija Živković had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
PAOK and Pakhtakor have settled on $2.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Real Sociedad 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.
The offer from AEK for Dimitris Pelkas 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.
PAOK asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Daniil Khudyakov is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taison 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 PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from FC Copenhagen for Christos Zafeiris 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.
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. PAOK will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zé Leite has, at PAOK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Panagiotis Samaris is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and PAOK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Christos Zafeiris 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Diego Costa 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.