Marked for Panagiotis Mantazelis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Nov 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sokratis Dioudis
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Asteras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Nov 2030
Asteras beaten on the continent
0‑2 against CFR Cluj, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout11 Nov 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.
Market11 Nov 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 Asteras can pretend not to have heard.
Match9 Nov 2030
4 matches without a win for Asteras
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Asteras are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Ricardinho runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Ricardinho 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Giannis Kotsiras 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 May 2030
“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.
The dugout13 May 2030
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Asteras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 May 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 Asteras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout13 May 2030
“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.
Squad13 May 2030
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 dugout13 May 2030
When it matters, Yéli Traoré plays
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.
The dugout13 May 2030
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.
Squad13 May 2030
Antony Angileri has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Asteras that is a harder question to answer.
Market13 May 2030
Asteras have made Emanuel Valdearenas available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Feb 2030
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Asteras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Asteras
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Asteras may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad25 Feb 2030
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Giannis Kotsiras
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Asteras will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad25 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Asteras
Julián Bartolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Wages eat 119% of everything Asteras 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Panagiotis Mantazelis and Asteras agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
Julián Bartolo 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 dugout25 Feb 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Asteras told Diallo Sanoussi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Jul 2029
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Asteras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Jul 2029
Quique Fornos 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 Asteras can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The deal with Olympiacos 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giannis Kotsiras commits to Asteras for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
A loan move for Sebastiano Nava is in the works
Asteras have made the call to Juventus. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market9 Jul 2029
Spyridon Georgiadis is 19, and Asteras have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.