Marked for Anastasios Tzavellas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Sep 2042
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market15 Sep 2042
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Sep 2042
Hossein Kazeminia 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.
Squad15 Sep 2042
Christos Darviras 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.
Match13 Sep 2042
1‑2 to Panathinaikos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings15 Sep 2042
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Sep 2042
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Toby Nainggolan and AEL Larisa agree another 5 years.
Player ratings15 Sep 2042
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Sep 2042
The name of Timothy Chadli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AEL Larisa say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jul 2042
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jul 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jul 2042
Anastasios Tzavellas 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Feb 2042
Tommaso Maressa damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Player ratings3 Feb 2042
A brace, and Sotirios Georgiadis takes the afternoon — 9.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sotirios Georgiadis provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Feb 2042
“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.
Squad3 Feb 2042
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ahmed Kossonou and AEL Larisa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Feb 2042
Hossein Kazeminia 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.
Squad3 Feb 2042
15 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match1 Feb 2042
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sotirios Georgiadis. 3‑2 against OFI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match1 Feb 2042
AEL Larisa are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings3 Feb 2042
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Jan 2042
Tommaso Maressa damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Player ratings13 Jan 2042
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.59, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad13 Jan 2042
Hugo Guerrero is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.29 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad13 Jan 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Jan 2042
Atromitos left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Jan 2042
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hossein Kazeminia, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 May 2041
A knee injury of the worst kind for Paris Elmensdorp
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 May 2041
A fracture rules Tommaso Maressa out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad6 May 2041
461 appearances across 17 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and AEL Larisa know what they have.
Squad6 May 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market6 May 2041
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Morgan Clarke leaves AEL Larisa the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.