Saba Sidamonidze

Central Defender - Nea Salamis
18 Sep 2028
Monday
Process

Marked for Saba Sidamonidze

111 Edition

The Nea Salamis Sentinel

11 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for Nea Salamis

26 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.

Market

Saba Sidamonidze puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Nea Salamis, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Nikita Lyukevich keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nea Salamis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Alberto Varo

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Arttu Heinonen 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 Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

David Goldar 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.

Market

Doxa expected to open talks for Panagiotis Louka

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Nea Salamis will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Match

Nea Salamis share the spoils with Anorthosis

A 1‑1 draw with Anorthosis leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Player ratings

Daniel Pérez never got going

5.65 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.

In brief

Back issues
105 Edition

The Nea Salamis Sentinel

31 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Dimitris Economides damages knee ligaments — 23 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.

Market

Panagiotis Artymatas puts it in writing

“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 Nea Salamis, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Nea Salamis say no — this time

The offer from Doxa for Panagiotis Louka 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.

Squad

Yaroslav Krashevskiy 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 Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Darío Poveda has improved at 31, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Squad

Home is on Saba Sidamonidze's mind

“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; Nea Salamis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

In brief

76 Edition

The Van Post

10 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at Van spills outside the ground

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.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Van

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Van is running low.

Market

José Cadenas puts it in writing

“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 Van, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Van

José Cadenas 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.

Squad

Daniel Tarazona 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.

Market

Khazar are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Van will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

In brief

59 Edition

The Van Post

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Guto

48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

A fracture rules Daniel Tarazona out for 37 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Van will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Van

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Van is running low.

Squad

Hayk Tatosyan: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Van have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Words at Van training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Meza Colli 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.

Market

Juan Pablo Perrotta told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Juan Pablo Perrotta has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Van.

In brief

29 Edition

The Van Post

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gor Manukyan damages knee ligaments — 98 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.

Squad

Cesar Meza Colli wants to finish where he started

Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Van now know that too.

Squad

José Cadenas 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

26 Edition

The Van Post

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Saba Sidamonidze hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Van can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Van

José Cadenas 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.

Squad

Words at Van training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Meza Colli 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.

In brief

  • Squad 12 new faces, and Van are still learning each other
  • Squad When it matters, Allef plays
25 Edition

The Van Post

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Luke Offord pulls a muscle — 14 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Squad

José Cadenas 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Cesar Meza Colli 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.

In brief

15 Edition

The Van Post

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Van

Hrayr Mkoyan 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.

Squad

Guto 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.

Market

Talks stall between Van and Saba Sidamonidze

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

In brief

12 Edition

The Van Post

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Van

Ezequiel Bustamante 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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Van

11 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.

Squad

When it matters, Gor Manukyan plays

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.

In brief