Marked for Tiago Queiroz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Olympiakos Nicosia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market16 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Olympiakos Nicosia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2029
The offer from Omonia 29M for Admir Bajrovic 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Botev Plovdiv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market16 Jul 2029
The chase for Panagiotis Kyriakou ended with $280.0K changing hands and AEL out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Olympiakos Nicosia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Kovalenko 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Nathan Palafoz 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 dugout16 Jul 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olympiakos Nicosia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout23 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Olympiakos Nicosia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Yanis Guermouche 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Viktor Kovalenko 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 dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Henrique Gomes
“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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Lucas Cuffia 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.
Market23 Apr 2029
The Revaz Injgia talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olympiakos Nicosia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market23 Apr 2029
The shop window has Mateo Pérez in it
Olympiakos Nicosia have let the market know Mateo Pérez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Aug 2028
The mood at Zlate Moravce 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spartak Trnava keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zlate Moravce may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Adam Pudil has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zlate Moravce is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Baumgartner and Zlate Moravce agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noa Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Zlate Moravce asked and AS Trencin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Jul 2028
Supporters organise against the Zlate Moravce board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zlate Moravce
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market10 Jul 2028
Tiago Queiroz 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 Zlate Moravce can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Jul 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zlate Moravce have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market10 Jul 2028
Malženice come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zlate Moravce did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jul 2028
As if he never left: Denis Duga returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Denis Duga is a Zlate Moravce player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad10 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Dominik Šnajder 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. Dominik Šnajder has, at Zlate Moravce, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vojtěch Kubista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 May 2028
Pierce Sweeney 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vojtěch Kubista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
9 new faces, and Zlate Moravce are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout29 May 2028
Pierce Sweeney 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 Pierce Sweeney trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 May 2028
When it matters, Adam Pudil plays
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.
Market29 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Denis Baumgartner’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Zlate Moravce, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Sander Granheim 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Jaroslav Holp 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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Marko Totka has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zlate Moravce 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jan Kadlec’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market24 Apr 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matěj Helebrand may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Jaroslav Holp 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 Jaroslav Holp trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Maxim Magada is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Squad24 Apr 2028
The comeback date has moved again: another 13 days for Karol Mondek, and a schedule the medical staff have stopped putting in writing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2028
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Matěj Helebrand and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Sander Granheim 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 dugout10 Apr 2028
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 Matěj Helebrand is on it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Pierce Sweeney 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 Zlate Moravce, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Leny Lamore is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market10 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Noa Cervantes signs something — a contract at Zlate Moravce or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market10 Apr 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zlate Moravce, another week without a signature from Tiago Queiroz.
Market10 Apr 2028
The clock does Pierce Sweeney’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Zlate Moravce could ask drops and the wages Pierce Sweeney can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Mar 2028
Denis Baumgartner and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Zlate Moravce training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Granheim 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zlate Moravce can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
When it matters, Marko Totka plays
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Marko Totka 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 Zlate Moravce, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces20 Mar 2028
The mood at Zlate Moravce 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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zlate Moravce
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Filip Lichý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Zlate Moravce training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Granheim 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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
When it matters, Jan Kadlec plays
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
No place for Ângelo Barbosa in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zlate Moravce are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market20 Mar 2028
Zlate Moravce have made Noa Cervantes available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A new face in his position, and Noa Cervantes suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Zlate Moravce have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.