Marked for Thodoris Kalpakis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
Pressure builds in the Asteras boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Franz Brorsson 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.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Paolo Fernandes 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.
Squad13 Jun 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgos Kyriopoulos, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Paolo Fernandes has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Asteras 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
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 Asteras can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
The Asteras board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad4 Apr 2033
312 appearances across 9 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.
Market4 Apr 2033
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Christodoulopoulos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asteras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Apr 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikola Šipčić and Asteras agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Franz Brorsson 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
Upbeat
Squad7 Feb 2033
There were 9 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
The Asteras board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad7 Feb 2033
“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.
Market7 Feb 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asteras is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Feb 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julián Chicco and Asteras agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Feb 2033
Franz Brorsson 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.
Match5 Feb 2033
It finished 3‑2, and it was Kevin Cata’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Asteras.
Player ratings7 Feb 2033
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2032
There were 10 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.
Boardroom8 Nov 2032
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 Asteras can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Nov 2032
The Asteras board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Match6 Nov 2032
The wait goes on for Asteras
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market8 Nov 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asteras they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Nov 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Franz Brorsson commits to Asteras for another 2 years.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Franz Brorsson 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Paolo Fernandes 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.
Match6 Nov 2032
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.