Marked for Andreas Papadopoulos
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jun 2031
Abdoulaye Dabo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Jhojan Valencia 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
No place for Nicolás Moreno in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ethnikos Achnas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Pafos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market2 Jun 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dimitris Theodorou is on it.
Market2 Jun 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emmanuel Lomotey’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
Nicolás Moreno 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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ethnikos Achnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Jovan Lukić 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.
Market7 Apr 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ethnikos Achnas, another week without a signature from Neofytos Michail.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
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.
Market7 Apr 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emmanuel Lomotey’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Neofytos Michail trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Kanon Gahou: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ethnikos Achnas will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market7 Apr 2031
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ethnikos Achnas could get for him.
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
The Ethnikos Achnas production line keeps running
46 graduates out of an academy now rated 7 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Feb 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Konstantinos Poursaitidis 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.
Match1 Feb 2031
Pafos left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jordy Steins, and the manager let it.
Market3 Feb 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ethnikos Achnas, another week without a signature from Jordy Steins.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Pieros Kastanos to a room that had heard them before.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
Juan Cejas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad30 Sep 2030
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Sep 2030
Nea Salamis are out and Ethnikos Achnas go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match28 Sep 2030
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Doxa will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Antonis Koumis, 33, rolls back the years — 8.27
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ethnikos Achnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Sep 2030
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ethnikos Achnas have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Neofytos Michail and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Dec 2029
30 matches without a win for Agia Napa
The run now stands at 30, and the questions being asked around Agia Napa are no longer polite ones.
The terraces31 Dec 2029
The mood at Agia Napa has turned into something else
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.
Market31 Dec 2029
“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 Agia Napa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Agia Napa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacine Bourhane 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.
Match29 Dec 2029
0‑1 to Apollon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Agia Napa needed to.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Dec 2029
No end in sight to Agia Napa's wait for a win
27 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Agia Napa has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Dec 2029
Every point is an argument now for Agia Napa
Position 14 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match8 Dec 2029
Beaten 0‑3 by Doxa, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Agia Napa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yacine Bourhane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Dec 2029
The goals have deserted Agia Napa
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Agia Napa can tell you which week it ends in.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Daniel Mota 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.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Nov 2029
23 matches without a win for Agia Napa
The run now stands at 23, and the questions being asked around Agia Napa are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Nov 2029
Agia Napa are in real trouble now
Position 14, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match10 Nov 2029
Nowhere to hide for Agia Napa
0‑3 against Aris, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Yacine Bourhane 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.
Match10 Nov 2029
Agia Napa leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
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 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andreas Papadopoulos, and the manager let it.
Market12 Nov 2029
The Serif Berbic story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Serif Berbic signs something — a contract at Agia Napa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Oct 2029
The wait goes on for Agia Napa
21 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Agia Napa can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Agia Napa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Serif Berbic 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Yacine Bourhane 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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Ninety minutes of Yacine Bourhane at his very best
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 Agia Napa.
Match27 Oct 2029
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Agia Napa had all but put away. Paralimni will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match27 Oct 2029
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.