Marked for Afonso Vieira
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2037
Sigurd Dystland damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
A fracture rules Spyridon Alexiou out for 55 days
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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Labros Delibeis: 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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Luka Puzović, 33, rolls back the years — 8.20
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Sep 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between AEL Larisa and Panathinaikos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match12 Sep 2037
A 3‑3 draw with Panathinaikos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Shots: 16, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
A mark of 5.70 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2037
Sigurd Dystland damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Market10 Aug 2037
Afonso Vieira hands in a written request
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Vyacheslav Yakimov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Aug 2037
Anger at AEL Larisa 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.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Sigurd Dystland damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Luka Puzović 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Jul 2037
Sigurd Dystland damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Market13 Jul 2037
“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.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Jani Atanasov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Jun 2037
Sigurd Dystland damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Boardroom22 Jun 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at AEL Larisa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market22 Jun 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Jun 2037
Anger at AEL Larisa 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.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Sigurd Dystland damages knee ligaments — 129 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at AEL Larisa can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Jun 2037
“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.
Squad8 Jun 2037
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Giannis Tsilingiris is living that version at AEL Larisa, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Jun 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ahmed Kossonou and AEL Larisa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jun 2037
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.
Market8 Jun 2037
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AEL Larisa will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market8 Jun 2037
AEL Larisa bring in an old head
Tobías Peralta is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 May 2037
AEL Larisa are in real trouble now
Position 13, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market4 May 2037
“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.
Market4 May 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasileios Diamantakos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 May 2037
304 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad4 May 2037
Julien Ngoy 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.
Squad4 May 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Apr 2037
Anger at AEL Larisa 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Michalis Pardalos damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Mar 2037
Michalis Pardalos damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Match9 Mar 2037
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market9 Mar 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasileios Diamantakos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zisis Chatzistravos commits to AEL Larisa for another 2 years.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Julien Ngoy 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.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Zisis Chatzistravos 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.