Marked for Marcelo Branco
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 May 2030
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. AEL Larisa will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad20 May 2030
Ahmed Kossonou 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.
Squad20 May 2030
Niki Radovič 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.
The dugout20 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcelo Branco, and the manager let it.
Boardroom20 May 2030
Wages eat 85% of everything AEL Larisa earn
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.
Loan watch20 May 2030
8 goals in 18 games at Panionios — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AEL Larisa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout20 May 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AEL Larisa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market20 May 2030
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee AEL Larisa could ask drops and the wages Nuurdin Ali Mohudin can ask rise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Apr 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Niki Radovič 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Aïssa Mandi 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 AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
Niki Radovič 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.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“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.
Loan watch29 Apr 2030
The goals keep arriving from Nuno Barbosa’s exile
6 goals in 26 games at Athens Kallithea — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AEL Larisa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
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 Bence Somfalvi is on it.
Market29 Apr 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Marcelo Branco may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Apr 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad15 Apr 2030
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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nuurdin Ali Mohudin 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
“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.
Loan watch15 Apr 2030
“I watch every AEL Larisa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Panionios runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
Ahmed Kossonou 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.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Fezhenko, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
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.
Market15 Apr 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Mar 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 Mar 2030
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.
Boardroom18 Mar 2030
The numbers do not look good at AEL Larisa
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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Niki Radovič 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.
Loan watch18 Mar 2030
“I did not go to Panionios to sit and watch. I want to come back to AEL Larisa and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“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.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manu Rivas, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
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.
Market18 Mar 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 137 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Feb 2030
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.
Boardroom18 Feb 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at AEL Larisa now.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
AEL Larisa asked and HNK Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A row about effort at AEL Larisa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niki Radovič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch18 Feb 2030
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AEL Larisa, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jeremiah Berkeley-Agyepong, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
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.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
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 Jeremiah Berkeley-Agyepong is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jan 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kampaniakos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market7 Jan 2030
“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.
Player ratings7 Jan 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panionios waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad7 Jan 2030
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and AEL Larisa have had the benefit of it.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match5 Jan 2030
The run at home goes on for AEL Larisa
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Zisis Chatzistravos 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
500 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Oct 2029
40 days out for Jorge Fernandes after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Oct 2029
“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.
Match8 Oct 2029
AEL Larisa refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 11 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nuurdin Ali Mohudin has just signed for AEL Larisa, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Fernandes and AEL Larisa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Wages eat 89% of everything AEL Larisa earn
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.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Marcelo Branco
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Aug 2029
96 days out for Jorge Fernandes after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Aug 2029
“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.
Market13 Aug 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match13 Aug 2029
AEL Larisa are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market13 Aug 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Everything was agreed with BSK Bijelo Brdo and then the doctor spoke. AEL Larisa have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
The deal with Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
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.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A row about effort at AEL Larisa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Fernandes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Shane Duffy is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.