Marked for Thomas Clément
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Nov 2031
Pietro Fusi 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 Levadiakos can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Nov 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levadiakos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ognjen Ožegović commits to Levadiakos for another 1 years.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Agustín Urzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“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; Levadiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at Levadiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Abu Hanna 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.
Match1 Nov 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Ramiro Macagno dropped after a run of poor form
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The dugout
When it matters, Joel Abu Hanna plays
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Aug 2031
Joel Abu Hanna damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obolon waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Levadiakos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Agustín Urzi 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.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
6 academy graduates step up at Levadiakos
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilann Garin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market25 Aug 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Petros Siovas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market25 Aug 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Konstantinos Papadopoulos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market25 Aug 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thanasis Tachtsidis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad25 Aug 2031
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jun 2031
118 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Levadiakos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Charles Meunier has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Levadiakos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Levadiakos
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Agustín Urzi 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words at Levadiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Abu Hanna 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.
Market2 Jun 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Levadiakos have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
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 dugout2 Jun 2031
“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 dugout2 Jun 2031
Bence Batik without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Bence Batik was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 May 2031
Agustín Urzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 May 2031
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joel Abu Hanna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 May 2031
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.
Squad12 May 2031
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 Levadiakos that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout12 May 2031
Xavier Venâncio 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 dugout12 May 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout21 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Levadiakos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Agustín Urzi 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 Levadiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words at Levadiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Abu Hanna 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
Uneasy
Squad31 Mar 2031
Agustín Urzi 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joel Abu Hanna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout31 Mar 2031
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 Joel Abu Hanna is on it.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
Manuel Baldé 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 Levadiakos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Thomas Clément has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Nov 2030
Levadiakos are in real trouble now
Position 12, 8 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.
Match16 Nov 2030
The wait goes on for Levadiakos
6 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Agustín Urzi 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Joel Abu Hanna 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.
Match16 Nov 2030
Kifisia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Nov 2030
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Match18 Nov 2030
The half-term report on Levadiakos
Position 12, 8 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Clément commits to Levadiakos for another 4 years.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Apr 2030
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Joel Abu Hanna 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Hakim Sahabo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Thomas Clément
“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.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
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 dugout29 Apr 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Christos Kryparakos has written the date down.