Marked for Adrien Thibaut
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Santiago García Rossi 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market26 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alejandro Melo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Apr 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Davíð Kristján Ólafsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Nuno Barbosa
“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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago García Rossi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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 Adrien Thibaut is on it.
Market19 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Makris signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Marc Nierga is starting to look at home
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Ioan Yakovlev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Apostolis Christopoulos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Market22 Mar 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AEL Larisa have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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 Adrien Thibaut is on it.
Market22 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Makris signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Goni Naor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Feb 2027
AEL Larisa hit back inside 3 minutes
PAOK held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. AEL Larisa answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.43 on the card, and the AEL Larisa support went home talking about one name.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 1‑1 draw with PAOK leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Adrien Thibaut
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.” Pavlos Siovas chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alejandro Melo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nestos Chrysoupoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to AEL Larisa's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AEL Larisa has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AEL Larisa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spartak Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad18 Jan 2027
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AEL Larisa have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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.
In brief
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Squad
Words exchanged at AEL Larisa
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Goni Naor
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Tormena is in the works
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Gaël Kakuta yet — 7.86
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match12 Dec 2026
Volos NPS left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Goni Naor
“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.
Match14 Dec 2026
The half-term report on AEL Larisa
Position 9, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Pavlos Siovas to a room that had heard them before.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ahmed Kossonou
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Adrien Thibaut has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AEL Larisa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vasilis Sourlis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AEL Larisa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Yvann Maçon 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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 AEL Larisa know it.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Pione Sisto gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pavlos Siovas after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
AEL Larisa are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one AEL Larisa will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
Marc Nierga 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nordin Amrabat and AEL Larisa agree another 2 years.
Match31 Oct 2026
Atromitos made AEL Larisa work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AEL Larisa.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
86% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout2 Nov 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.” Pavlos Siovas, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Davíð Kristján Ólafsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
Levadiakos left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Benjamin Markuš ran the middle of the pitch — 6.75
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.75, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
103% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Pavlos Siovas to a room that had heard them before.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Rodríguez and AEL Larisa agree another 2 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Adrien Thibaut has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AEL Larisa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AEL Larisa will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Sep 2026
Chania are out and AEL Larisa go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Benjamin Markuš 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Adrien Thibaut 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 Pavlos Siovas left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
Voluntari come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AEL Larisa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 2 out at AEL Larisa
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
AEL Larisa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Club Brugge, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
AEL Larisa asked and Widzew Łódź said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Benjamin Markuš 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at AEL Larisa than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Adrien Thibaut had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AEL Larisa asked and Zamora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Andreas Makris 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
James Maxwell 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEL Larisa, another week without a signature from James Maxwell.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Asteras next, and one man in the AEL Larisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A season on the outside for Yvann Maçon
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at AEL Larisa has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market24 Aug 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market24 Aug 2026
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at AEL Larisa misheard it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Benjamin Markuš 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. Benjamin Markuš has, at AEL Larisa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Nea Salamis for Adrien Thibaut 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
AEL Larisa asked and OFI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
AEL Larisa offered $1.2M; Panathinaikos 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Giorgos Katris enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Nasos Dabizas has come up in conversations AEL Larisa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at AEL Larisa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Markuš was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thanasis Androutsos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.