Marked for Peter Adejimi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Sep 2030
Pafos make home a hard place to visit
34 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Ioakeim Toubas damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Match25 Sep 2030
Pafos through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Doxa, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market30 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Pafos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Marked 7.67 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pafos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Abdoulaye Sow
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdoulaye Sow will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pafos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match28 Sep 2030
Still nobody has beaten Pafos
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Sep 2030
Pafos make home a hard place to visit
32 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad9 Sep 2030
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pafos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Sep 2030
No mercy from Pafos
Paralimni will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pafos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
Robert Arboleda: 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.” Pafos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Vintage Pêpê — 8.00
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market9 Sep 2030
Peter Adejimi 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 Pafos can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
A defender's goal wins it for Pafos — 7.91
1 for Assane Dioussé, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Transfer targets9 Sep 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pafos have done the hard part with AEL Larisa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ioakeim Toubas
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pafos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pafos can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pafos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pafos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Jul 2030
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market22 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pafos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Jul 2030
“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; Pafos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Pafos
Pêpê 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.
Market22 Jul 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Pafos have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jun 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pafos can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Jun 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu and Pafos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Pafos
Pêpê 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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Pafos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Jun 2030
The phone has started ringing about Ioakeim Toubas again, and this time the name on the line is Ermis. Pafos are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Jun 2030
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Javier Siverio has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market3 Jun 2030
“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.
Transfer targets3 Jun 2030
A loan move for Fatihan Kâhya is in the works
Pafos have made the call to Fatih Karagumruk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
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 Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Mar 2030
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pafos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Pafos
Jay Gorter and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2030
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 dugout18 Mar 2030
Jay Gorter gets picked when it counts
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 Jay Gorter is on it.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“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.