Marked for Joseph McCallum
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Ypsonas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Nov 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Thierno 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 Ypsonas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Nov 2030
Ypsonas counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ypsonas now.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Kristopher Da Graça 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.
Match23 Nov 2030
PAEEK made Ypsonas work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces25 Nov 2030
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Ninety minutes of Giannis Gerolemou at his very best
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ypsonas.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ypsonas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Nov 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ypsonas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Thierno 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Joseph McCallum 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. Joseph McCallum has, at Ypsonas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Kristopher Da Graça 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.
Squad18 Nov 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; Ypsonas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
Alexandr Bem 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 Ypsonas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Nov 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.
Looking ahead18 Nov 2030
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against PAEEK in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market14 Jan 2030
The offer from Norwich City for Ellis Simms 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.
Market14 Jan 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 Coventry City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.59, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Jeremy Monga, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 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.
Match12 Jan 2030
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Joseph McCallum has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
$110.0K on the table at Swansea City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Miguel Ángel Brau 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 targets14 Jan 2030
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.