Marked for Daniel Palacios
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words exchanged at Volos NPS
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad25 Mar 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Daniel Palacios wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Volos NPS now know that too.
The dugout25 Mar 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 Alexis Kalogeropoulos is on it.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
The manager makes James Jones a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Volos NPS. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Volos NPS would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Market25 Mar 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Gonzalo Pastor may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market25 Mar 2030
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Volos NPS could get for him.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikos Grammatikakis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jan 2030
The drought breaks for Volos NPS
16 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Panetolikos were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market28 Jan 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 dugout28 Jan 2030
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Volos NPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Jan 2030
The name of Gonzalo Pastor has come up in conversations Volos NPS were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Volos NPS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Jan 2030
A 2‑0 win over Panetolikos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.58, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Kosta Aleksić will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Nov 2029
8 matches without a win for Volos NPS
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Volos NPS are no longer polite ones.
Market26 Nov 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel 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.
Match24 Nov 2029
Volos NPS cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Nov 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Volos NPS
Nikos Grammatikakis 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 dugout26 Nov 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Kosta Aleksić out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Volos NPS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Sven Köhler and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel 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.
Match22 Sep 2029
Olympiacos left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
James Jones 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Volos NPS can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Sotirios Vlachodimos to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Volos NPS boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 May 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volos NPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 May 2029
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel 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.
Squad28 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emanuele Modugno and Volos NPS agree another 4 years.
Squad28 May 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Volos NPS are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 May 2029
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volos NPS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom7 May 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.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The Volos NPS 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.
Market7 May 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 May 2029
Words exchanged at Volos NPS
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad7 May 2029
A row about effort at Volos NPS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Palacios and Volos NPS agree another 1 years.
The dugout7 May 2029
Lazaros Lamprou has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Volos NPS 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.
The dugout7 May 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Adilson Bahia: 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.” Volos NPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Lazaros Lamprou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Panagiotis Liagas 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“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 Volos NPS know it.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
When it matters, Joca 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for Volos NPS
9 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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Volos NPS
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Volos NPS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Panagiotis Liagas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Volos NPS are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrea Carbone and Volos NPS agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Sotirios Vlachodimos to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hjörtur Hermannsson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Volos NPS may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Volos NPS
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Ninety minutes of Joca at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Volos NPS.
Match20 Nov 2028
The half-term report on Volos NPS
Position 7, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“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 Volos NPS know it.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Daniel Palacios wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Volos NPS now know that too.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
When it matters, Joca 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.
Match18 Nov 2028
A 1‑1 draw with AEL Larisa leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Volos NPS
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Volos NPS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Palacios and Volos NPS agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sotirios Vlachodimos was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Volos NPS dressing room was either.
Squad25 Sep 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Alfredo Trejo
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Market25 Sep 2028
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Match23 Sep 2028
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Olympiacos came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 May 2028
Alejandro Gutiérrez 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.
Squad22 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Lopez and Cortulua agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match20 May 2028
Once Caldas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 May 2028
A row about effort at Cortulua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Lopez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Santiago Muriel left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout22 May 2028
“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.
The dugout22 May 2028
When it matters, Mael Macía 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 dugout22 May 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.