The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olympiacos B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pablo Maffeo 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Panserraikos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nikos Gotzamanidis has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alexandros Paschalakis has written the date down.
They sit in position 4 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Erik Hamza, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.31
A mark of 8.31 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.
1 for Manolis Saliakas, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Olympiacos B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pablo Maffeo 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Olympiacos B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nair Tiknizyan 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nikolaos Pelkas on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panargiakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos B is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Erik Hamza, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Olympiacos B can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hellas Syros were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Antonis Papakanellos 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.
Position 8 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The name of Antonio Zarzana has come up in conversations Olympiacos B were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Olympiacos B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nair Tiknizyan 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.
“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 Olympiacos B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Paschalis Toufakis reports back to Olympiacos B with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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; Olympiacos B are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Antonio Zarzana 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Olympiacos B people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Antonio Zarzana to Marko has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Olympiacos B with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The offer from Teplice for Aboubakary Koita 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Paschalis Toufakis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Manolis Saliakas again, and this time the name on the line is OFK Beograd. Olympiacos B are listening politely and promising nothing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Manolis Saliakas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
SquadAntonis Dama falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zeleznicar Pancevo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos B is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos B can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Paschalis Toufakis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympiacos B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olympiacos B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Olympiacos B has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Olympiacos B have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Nair Tiknizyan 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.
Add another name to the list: Niki Volos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandros Paschalakis. The answer from Olympiacos B has not changed — yet.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikos Lolis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 8 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nikolaos Pelkas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
5 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gustavo Mancha scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Antonio Zarzana 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Nikolaos Pelkas to a room that had heard them before.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Paschalis Toufakis is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Gustavo Mancha 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.
At 23 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.
A mark of 7.45, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
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.” Nikolaos Pelkas chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Marko defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Nikos Zouglis scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Panargiakos, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Nikos Zouglis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Olympiacos B pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gustavo Mancha signs something — a contract at Olympiacos B or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Olympiacos B was different afterwards.
Position 8 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fanis Bakoulas 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Olympiacos B will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nikolaos Pelkas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Chania next, and one man in the Olympiacos B dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gustavo Mancha signs something — a contract at Olympiacos B or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Olympiacos B can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Gustavo Mancha 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikos Lolis 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nikolaos Pelkas, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Erik Hamza, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.31
A mark of 8.31 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
1 for Apostolos Martinis, marked 7.84, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a 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 Olympiacos B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nikolaos Pelkas on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.