The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chikhura is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chikhura they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Apostolos Tsilingiris: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chikhura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alquimedes Peralta and Chikhura agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jack Mihailidis is 20, and Chikhura have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
A new face in his position, and Taneli Hämäläinen suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Chikhura have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Luis Ruíz arrives at Chikhura with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chikhura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chikhura know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Thomas Hagelskjær plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sioni defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.