It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Nea Salamis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Goldar 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Samvel Ghukasyan has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Nea Salamis have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The phone has started ringing about Giannis Kalanidis again, and this time the name on the line is Ermis. Nea Salamis are listening politely and promising nothing.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nea Salamis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
José Artiles has improved at 35, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Nea Salamis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Goldar 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nea Salamis can pretend not to have heard.
Alberto Varo 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Nea Salamis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Pontikos 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nea Salamis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Nea Salamis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alberto Varo 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Nea Salamis training over how hard people work
“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 Nea Salamis, and it is not being withdrawn.
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Axel Holewiński has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Motorzinho is living that version at Paralimni, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Élan Ricardo 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.
Marked 5.54. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nea Salamis can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Agia Napa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giannis Kalanidis. The answer from Nea Salamis has not changed — yet.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Alberto Varo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giannis Kalanidis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Nea Salamis and Apollon, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Álex Guti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nea Salamis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Add another name to the list: Torpedo Kutaisi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Espínola. The answer from Nea Salamis has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jul 2027
José Artiles has improved at 34, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Alexandros Michail 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Ermis for Dimitris Kyprianou 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.
Alberto Varo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giannis Kalanidis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 Nea Salamis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nea Salamis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Dimitris Kyprianou again, and this time the name on the line is Ermis. Nea Salamis are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giannis Kalanidis and Nea Salamis agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álex Guti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.