Marked for Bjerre Verlinden
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2032
50 days out for Eric Biasiol after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levadiakos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2032
The deal with PAOK died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Boardroom9 Aug 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Agustín Urzi 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2032
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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vichos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2032
Eric Biasiol breaks a bone — 57 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
Levadiakos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Panathinaikos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
Levadiakos and AEK have settled on $220.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The dugout2 Aug 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Levadiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Bjerre Verlinden has improved at 24, 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. 5 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad2 Aug 2032
“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; Levadiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad2 Aug 2032
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steeve Delarue was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Aug 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Steeve Delarue, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom31 May 2032
Pressure builds in the Levadiakos boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad31 May 2032
Agustín Urzi 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 Levadiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Levadiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steeve Delarue 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.
Squad31 May 2032
No place for Onne de Flart in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Levadiakos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout31 May 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bjerre Verlinden, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 May 2032
Pietro Lovo 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
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2032
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marios Vichos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Apr 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levadiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2032
“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; Levadiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
Steeve Delarue 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 Levadiakos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
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 Felipe Álvarez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2032
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Levadiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Lamarana Jallow 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
A muscle injury sidelines Guti for 19 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Levadiakos will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Oct 2031
A fracture rules Pedro Tavares out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Levadiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Oct 2031
Jhan Rengifo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Levadiakos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match11 Oct 2031
A 1‑0 win over Asteras, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Lamarana Jallow 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.
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Bjerre Verlinden 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 dugout13 Oct 2031
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
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
The terraces25 Aug 2031
Anger at Levadiakos spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad25 Aug 2031
87 days out for Pedro Tavares after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levadiakos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
No thanks: Yéli Traoré rejects the move
Levadiakos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Asteras, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad25 Aug 2031
At 23 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.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
8 academy players handed senior numbers at Levadiakos
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Levadiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marios Vichos 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Anastasios Tachtsidis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market25 Aug 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leonidas Mandalos has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market25 Aug 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikos Androutsos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexei Koșelev and Levadiakos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Levadiakos asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Samir Ben Sallam 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
No place for Guti in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Levadiakos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levadiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Levadiakos sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Market7 Jul 2031
Experience through the door at Levadiakos
Pedro Tavares arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The clubs have shaken hands with PAOK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Agustín Urzi 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.
Squad23 Jun 2031
A move Bjerre Verlinden would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bjerre Verlinden is living that version at Levadiakos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
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.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Levadiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marios Vichos 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 dugout23 Jun 2031
The manager makes an example of Alexei Koșelev
“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 targets23 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Minsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad23 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bjerre Verlinden and Levadiakos agree another 4 years.
The dugout23 Jun 2031
Duarte Soares 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.