The deal with Asteras is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panetolikos have kept their man, and Kampaniakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elias Börjesson and Kampaniakos agree another 4 years.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Anastasios Giakoumakis to a room that had heard them before.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kampaniakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kampaniakos had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Cyril Zabou 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Kampaniakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christos Tachmatzidis 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.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Kampaniakos had all but put away. Nestos Chrysoupoli will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Kampaniakos have made the call to PAS Giannina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kampaniakos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Josete Miranda 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.
Minute 89, against PAOK B, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Kampaniakos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 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 Kampaniakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edouard Leclerc was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
SquadA Kampaniakos teenager takes the young player award
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.
Josete Miranda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christos Tachmatzidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kelvin Lamptey-Mills and Kampaniakos agree another 4 years.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
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 Thodoris Albanis is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tasos Kritikos’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kampaniakos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kampaniakos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kampaniakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anastasios Giakoumakis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edouard Leclerc was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kampaniakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Josete Miranda 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anastasios Giakoumakis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Kampaniakos
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Kampaniakos man
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kampaniakos can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Kampaniakos offered $1.0M; OFI said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kampaniakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kampaniakos know it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kampaniakos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Ángel Arcos 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Celta Fortuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Oliveras 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.
In brief
The dugoutYoel Lago asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Celta Fortuna can pretend not to have heard.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Celta Fortuna will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Celta Fortuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Celta Fortuna can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jan Oliveras 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.
Words at Celta Fortuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Izan Server 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.
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.
Ángel Arcos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Pol Gil left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Meixús was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Carlos Dotor
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Celta Fortuna can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Celta Fortuna has been clear about where Yoel Lago stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ángel Arcos 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Meixús was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Gil was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Celta Fortuna dressing room was 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 Celta Fortuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Meixús was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Gil after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Izan Server, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A Celta Fortuna teenager takes the young player award
Hugo Burcio is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hugo Burcio did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 23 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Pol Gil could afford to be generous.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Celta Fortuna have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Nobody at Celta Fortuna is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Celta Fortuna can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Meixús was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.