Marked for Efthymios Mitroglou
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
14 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Marko Kerkez 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
José Sacramento is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Dimitris Emmanouilidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Léandro Gomes gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Léandro Gomes has just signed for Levadiakos, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Ognjen Ožegović is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout10 Jul 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Léandro Gomes arrives at Levadiakos with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
21 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Levadiakos 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Konstantinos Angelakis has, at Levadiakos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 Levadiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Dimitris Emmanouilidis 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Urzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Jul 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Levadiakos signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
5 new boys at the Levadiakos academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Levadiakos boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Jun 2028
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Levadiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Ilann Garin arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ilann Garin has, at Levadiakos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Marios Vichos 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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Gabriel Morales has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Levadiakos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jefferson Buitrago is living that version at Levadiakos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Levadiakos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Urzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ahmed Guettaf's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Scott Jr. Calderwood, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Marko Kerkez has been promised minutes
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 Marko Kerkez has written the date down.
Market19 Jun 2028
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Jefferson Buitrago arrives at Levadiakos with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jun 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levadiakos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Dimitris Emmanouilidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A move Andrea Brizi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrea Brizi is living that version at Levadiakos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Agustín Urzi 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Levadiakos asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market12 Jun 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout12 Jun 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.