“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Othmane Boussaid commits to Aris Thessaloniki for another 4 years.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Uroš Račić 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.37 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8.34. 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.
9 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Martin Hongla 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.
Sokratis Dioudis 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.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aris Thessaloniki has to find a result from somewhere.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Račić 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Martin Hongla wants continental football; whether Aris Thessaloniki can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lucio Falasco is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. James Wright is living that version at Aris Thessaloniki, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Hongla 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑1 away to the standard of Twente. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Santiago Silva 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.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfredo Trejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Račić 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.
Aris Thessaloniki spent the window trying to move Martin Frýdek on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
In brief
Player ratingsUroš Račić spends the afternoon fouling
Loan watchDudu is watching from the bench at Volos NPS
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Santiago Silva 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitris Chatsidis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“I did not go to Aris Thessaloniki to sit and watch. I want to come back to Panathinaikos and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panathinaikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A season-long audition: PAOK still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Panathinaikos's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
For a fortnight his name was everywhere; this Monday it is nowhere. The market has moved on, Triantafyllos Tsapras is still a Panathinaikos player, and the only people relieved are the ones picking the team.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alfredo Trejo has agreed terms with Asteras for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Martin Hongla 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panathinaikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kostas Kotsaris 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Pellistri 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Panathinaikos, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Favio Cabral has just signed for Panathinaikos, and for once the answer mattered.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adriano Jagušić is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Favio Cabral arrives from Chacarita Juniors to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Olympiacos go through and Panathinaikos go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iñaki Peña 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 144 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Neman have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitry Radikovskiy provided it, and the 8.81 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 Neman 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sotiris Kontouris has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 130 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Andrews Tetteh 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.
In brief
SquadIñaki Peña falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Adriano Jagušić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The name of Andrews Tetteh has come up in conversations Panathinaikos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Iñaki Peña 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Neman, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Elmin Rastoder again, and this time the name on the line is Portimonense. Panathinaikos are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AEK will make the call about Triantafyllos Tsapras this week. Panathinaikos have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Neman will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Neman can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Andrews Tetteh obliged against AEL Larisa. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Panathinaikos.
Match9 Dec 2026
Andrews Tetteh wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Andrews Tetteh found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and AEL Larisa went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Santino Andino did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Andrews Tetteh 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Neman is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neman 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Neman, and 3 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neman, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Iñaki Peña 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.
“I watch every Panathinaikos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Neman runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Neman have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexey Shalashnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neman the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Neman, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Sadovnichiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Kravtsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neman the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Yuriy Pantia 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.
“I watch every Neman game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Neman has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The offer from Isloch for Santino Andino 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.
Andrews Tetteh 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kostas Kotsaris reports back to Panathinaikos with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Iñaki Peña 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 captaincy has been taken off Tasos Bakasetas. Panathinaikos will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Neman will make the call about Sotiris Kontouris this week. Panathinaikos have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.