Marked for Marlon
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Angelo Sagal out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kifisia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kifisia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleks Petkov 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nektarios Kaloskamis, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Marlon asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
Angelo Sagal breaks a bone — 96 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Jorge Pombo 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angelo Sagal 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Ché Nunnely
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Imam Jagne has moved up it.
In brief
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The dugout
Marlon knocks on the manager’s door
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The dugout
Leandro Basán has been promised minutes
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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 Kifisia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Aleks Petkov 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Basán, and the manager let it.
Market22 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tiago Manso’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Feb 2027
The season ends: position 6 for Kifisia
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 38 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Kifisia's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kifisia has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Kifisia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Angelo Sagal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Benny runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market22 Feb 2027
No place for Marlon in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marlon has his answer from Kifisia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Rubén Pérez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Match20 Feb 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Levadiakos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Kifisia close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Kifisia's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kifisia has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Jorge Pombo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kifisia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Benny runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Giannis Kousoulos 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Olympiacos have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan move for Artem Karpukas is in the works
Kifisia have made the call to Zenit. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The team sheet said everything about Marlon
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marlon.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Kifisia pick somebody else ahead of Leandro Basán
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Looking ahead
Kifisia take on the side everybody is chasing
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kifisia can pretend not to have heard.
Match23 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Kifisia
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Talleres have kept their man, and Kifisia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Marlon
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kifisia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imam Jagne 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 ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
River Plate have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
6 unbeaten for Kifisia
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Kifisia did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Angelo Sagal 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match19 Dec 2026
The run at home goes on for Kifisia
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match19 Dec 2026
Kifisia rescue it on 92 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Panetolikos had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Panetolikos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Kifisia
Jorge Pombo 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Levadiakos made Kifisia work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad23 Nov 2026
50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match23 Nov 2026
Kifisia at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 4, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Stylianos Torosidis, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alberto Botía
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marlon finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Kifisia have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alexandros Anagnostopoulos’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kifisia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Kifisia
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Kifisia are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jorge Pombo 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Kifisia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Angelo Sagal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Marlon
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Stylianos Torosidis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kifisia dressing room was either.
Match14 Nov 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Olympiacos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Jesús Rueda asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Kifisia would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.