It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Blackpool this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Anastasios Tsimikas is living that version at Blackpool, and it tends to show in the first month.
Blackpool ran out of time with Coventry City. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
AFC Wimbledon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at Blackpool training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Romero 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Blackpool will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at APEA Akrotiri is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thanasis Papadakos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; APEA Akrotiri are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
APEA Akrotiri have made the call to MEAP Nisou. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
APEA Akrotiri have made the call to Olympiakos Nicosia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at APEA Akrotiri, and both men came out saying it was fine.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee APEA Akrotiri could ask drops and the wages Pavlo Polehenko can ask rise.
“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 APEA Akrotiri, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. APEA Akrotiri have done the hard part with Anorthosis, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MEAP Nisou have kept their man, and APEA Akrotiri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thanasis Papadakos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at APEA Akrotiri can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and APEA Akrotiri will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what APEA Akrotiri can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anastasios Tsimikas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around APEA Akrotiri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with PAEEK 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.
APEA Akrotiri had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Apollon, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Pavlo Polehenko 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at APEA Akrotiri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lysandros Papastylianou 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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 APEA Akrotiri, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. APEA Akrotiri have done the hard part with Olympiakos Nicosia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ypsonas is saying, and nobody at APEA Akrotiri is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ypsonas have kept their man, and APEA Akrotiri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around APEA Akrotiri they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Anastasios Tsimikas has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at APEA Akrotiri can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” APEA Akrotiri have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivan Dig is living that version at APEA Akrotiri, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad26 May 2031
Words at APEA Akrotiri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thanasis Papadakos 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at APEA Akrotiri can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Khalid Shakhtiev is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Denys Chervinskyi arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. APEA Akrotiri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Spyros Konstantinou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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.
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.
“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 APEA Akrotiri know it.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
A APEA Akrotiri teenager takes the young player award
Stefan Wimmer is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
8 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.
Everything agreed with Achyronas-Onisilos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Apollon have kept their man, and APEA Akrotiri go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Aravena has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. APEA Akrotiri lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
1‑3 to Omonoia Aradippou, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at APEA Akrotiri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thanasis Papadakos 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.
Position 16, 7 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.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. APEA Akrotiri lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑3 to Doxa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words at APEA Akrotiri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Spyros Konstantinou 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
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 1‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at APEA Akrotiri can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutIvan Aravena knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.