Marked for Jonathan
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Paralimni may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match23 Dec 2028
Still nobody has beaten Paralimni
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Paralimni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Veljko Vukojević 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Nobody could get near Gal Kurež
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match25 Dec 2028
Halfway: Paralimni sit in position 2
31 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Wages eat 98% of everything Paralimni earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Marked 7.29. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Aaron Dhondt gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Paralimni 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Paralimni people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Jul 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 Paralimni can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Jul 2028
The name of Ahmed Khaled has come up in conversations Paralimni were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Everything agreed with APOEL, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Gal Kurež 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The offer went to Chalkanoras Idaliou this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Paralimni asked and Ethnikos Achnas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan and Paralimni agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
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Squad
Markus Kuster falls out with a teammate over standards
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Squad
5 new faces, and Paralimni are still learning each other
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The dugout
Ahmed Khaled knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 Jun 2028
The mood at Paralimni 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ethnikos Achnas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Paralimni is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Ethnikos Achnas; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market19 Jun 2028
Duván Zárate 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 Paralimni can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Gal Kurež 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Markus Kuster 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Jonathan
“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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
AEK have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 May 2028
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paralimni lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 May 2028
Gal Kurež 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 Paralimni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
João Cesco 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 dugout1 May 2028
João Cesco gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market1 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paralimni, another week without a signature from Pepo.
Squad1 May 2028
Pepo remains an outsider
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Paralimni would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Mar 2028
14 matches without a win for Paralimni
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Paralimni are no longer polite ones.
Match13 Mar 2028
Paralimni sink to position 14
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match13 Mar 2028
Paralimni finish in position 14
20 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Match11 Mar 2028
Paralimni cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Gal Kurež and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Paralimni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clifford Aboagye 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Javi Navarro beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match11 Mar 2028
0‑1 to Omonoia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Mar 2028
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Feb 2028
10 matches without a win for Paralimni
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Paralimni are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Feb 2028
Paralimni sink to position 13
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Feb 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 Paralimni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Paralimni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Markus Kuster was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Paralimni asked and Basaksehir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Looking ahead14 Feb 2028
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Paralimni know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Jonathan gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Paralimni will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Marko Simonovski 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Paralimni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Markus Kuster 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Paralimni can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
Wages eat 86% of everything Paralimni earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 dugout11 Oct 2027
Jonathan 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Javi Navarro’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Looking ahead: AE Kition at home
A side in position 9 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paralimni can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$330.0K on the table at Omonoia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Gal Kurež and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Paralimni will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Paralimni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Cesco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Paralimni are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Sean Ioannou 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 Sean Ioannou is on it.
Market12 Jul 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paralimni, another week without a signature from Gonçalo Chaves.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Jun 2027
Jalil Saadi 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 Paralimni can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Paralimni did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 19 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Panagiotis Panagiotou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paralimni the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Paralimni have gone to Omonoia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan and Paralimni agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Paralimni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Markus Kuster was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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.