Marked for Stefano Fedele
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Mar 2029
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Mar 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Mar 2029
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Nestos Chrysoupoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domi Berlanga 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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tasos Sapountzis, and the manager let it.
Market12 Mar 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nestos Chrysoupoli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Stefano Fedele knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Rafael Camacho has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kostas Tsamouris
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kifisia is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Domi Berlanga 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.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Aurélien Chappuis 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 dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aurélien Chappuis, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Ádám Kalán knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ádám Kalán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A season on the outside for Roland Paku
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 Jan 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.
Match6 Jan 2029
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Nestos Chrysoupoli are no longer polite ones.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nestos Chrysoupoli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Atromitos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Jan Vodháněl 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Nestos Chrysoupoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domi Berlanga 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Dec 2028
0‑3 against Anagennisi Karditsa, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Kyriakos Giaxis 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Domi Berlanga, and the manager let it.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $20.3M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavlos Dermitzakis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Looking ahead25 Dec 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Volos NPS in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Nov 2028
Jan Vodháněl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domi Berlanga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ádám Kalán, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
Nestos Chrysoupoli take on the side everybody is chasing
PAOK B arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
PAOK B next, and one man in the Nestos Chrysoupoli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market20 Nov 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nestos Chrysoupoli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Stefano Fedele knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefano Fedele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“I want to play”: Ádám Kalán speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nestos Chrysoupoli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Nov 2028
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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Thanasis Manolas has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match6 Nov 2028
Position 9 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market6 Nov 2028
“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.
Match4 Nov 2028
4 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli can tell you which week it ends in.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Nestos Chrysoupoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domi Berlanga 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
Jano Franco breaks a bone — 27 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Jul 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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Trento
Alessandro Marcandalli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets5 Jul 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.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Aucelli, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stefano Fedele commits to Trento for another 3 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Trento know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Trento have made the call to Bologna. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Trento academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.