Marked for Denis Kala
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
Denis Kala 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Asteras Tripolis B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Jul 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Asteras Tripolis B know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 May 2028
Federico Macheda damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Squad29 May 2028
35 days out for Noah Zilliox after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Asteras Tripolis B will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout29 May 2028
“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
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Federico Macheda
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Asteras Tripolis B lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Apr 2028
30 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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; Asteras Tripolis B are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Nikopolidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Apr 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Giannis Bouzoukis has his answer from Asteras Tripolis B; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Asteras Tripolis B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giannis Nikopolidis 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Gerald Okoye 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“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 Asteras Tripolis B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Giannis Nikopolidis 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Denis Kala 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Jan 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 16. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Asteras Tripolis B can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Asteras Tripolis B will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Match1 Jan 2028
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad3 Jan 2028
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Denis Kala in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asteras Tripolis B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Asteras Tripolis B prefer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Nov 2027
Position 2, 16 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match20 Nov 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Asteras Tripolis B did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Hagan Frimpong 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Konstantinos Tzolis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Asteras Tripolis B dressing room was either.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The form table has caught Denis Kala
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match20 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Iraklis? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces15 Nov 2027
Supporters organise against the Asteras Tripolis B 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Nikopolidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
The big one: Iraklis come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Asteras Tripolis B will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Giannis Nikopolidis 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giannis Bouzoukis. 1‑0 against PAOK B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Giannis Bouzoukis at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Asteras Tripolis B.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Denis Kala 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Konstantinos Tzolis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad27 Sep 2027
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Giannis Bouzoukis has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Looking ahead27 Sep 2027
Kavala next, and one man in the Asteras Tripolis B dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Giannis Nikopolidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
Minute 93, against Iraklis, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match28 Aug 2027
It needed Alberto Simoni to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Iraklis, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad30 Aug 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitris Karadalis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Off the bench and decisive: Denis Kala
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Asteras Tripolis B were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Christos Gromitsaris 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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; Asteras Tripolis B are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nikos Kanellopoulos 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Asteras Tripolis B than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Asteras Tripolis B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market1 Mar 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alberto Simoni may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Hagan Frimpong 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Asteras Tripolis B will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Marios Dervishi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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; Asteras Tripolis B are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Feb 2027
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Asteras Tripolis B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Laskaris 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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 Asteras Tripolis B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Asteras Tripolis B told Dimitris Retsos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market1 Feb 2027
Denis Kala told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Denis Kala has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Asteras Tripolis B.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hagan Frimpong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Leandro Frroku 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Konstantinos Tzolis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Kala, and the manager let it.
Match26 Dec 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Kampaniakos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Christos Gromitsaris’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Asteras Tripolis B needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hagan Frimpong 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vasilis Archontakakis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match26 Sep 2026
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Konstantinos Tzolis was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Asteras Tripolis B dressing room was either.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Fotis Kotsonis 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Dimitris Retsos
“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.