Marked for Stelios Kazelis
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Egaleo
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match22 Jul 2030
Egaleo sink to position 8
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market22 Jul 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Egaleo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Egaleo have done the hard part with AEL Larisa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Egaleo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonny Arriba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Egaleo asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Egaleo
Henry King 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.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Panargiakos 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.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
Henry King knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Henry King trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Aug 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Egaleo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad6 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Egaleo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The numbers do not look good at Egaleo
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Egaleo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juanto Ortuño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stelios Kazelis and Egaleo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A loan move for Ognjen Ristić is in the works
Egaleo have made the call to Athens Kallithea. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market6 Aug 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Egaleo, another week without a signature from Lander Olaetxea.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“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
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
The deal with Chania is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Egaleo
Félix Nzouango Bikien 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Stelios Kazelis arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stelios Kazelis has, at Egaleo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juanto Ortuño commits to Egaleo for another 2 years.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Egaleo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juanto Ortuño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market4 Jun 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juanto Ortuño has his answer from Egaleo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to OFI: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Stavros Bakasetas
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Makedonikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 Nov 2028
0‑3 against AEK, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match25 Nov 2028
0‑3 to PAOK B, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
Makedonikos are taken apart by AEK — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. 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.
Market27 Nov 2028
“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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Stelios Kazelis: 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.” Makedonikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market27 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Makedonikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Aleksandr Šapovalov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Edgar Ié 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Aleksandr Šapovalov 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 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Ié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market16 Oct 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Makedonikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Nejc Antonič has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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 Kostas Souvlatzis has written the date down.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Miguel García knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Makedonikos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“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.