Marked for Liam Cunningham
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Jan 2036
Uros Matic runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Paralimni
Jaly Mouaddib 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.
Match12 Jan 2036
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bello Martins. 3‑1 against MEAP Nisou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words at Paralimni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan López 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.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2036
Paralimni asked and Aris said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Jan 2036
Paralimni settle it inside twenty minutes
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. MEAP Nisou spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings14 Jan 2036
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Jan 2036
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market14 Jan 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 May 2035
“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.
Squad14 May 2035
Words exchanged at Paralimni
Jaly Mouaddib 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.
Squad14 May 2035
Tim Van de Beek 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.
Boardroom14 May 2035
Paralimni cannot sign anybody
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.
Market14 May 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paralimni, another week without a signature from Frederik Jäkel.
The dugout14 May 2035
Nicola Faccin 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 Paralimni, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 May 2035
The manager makes an example of Liam Cunningham
“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.
Market14 May 2035
The clock does Nicola Faccin’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Paralimni could ask drops and the wages Nicola Faccin can ask rise.
Squad14 May 2035
“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 Paralimni will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Paralimni may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words exchanged at Paralimni
Jaly Mouaddib 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Paralimni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frederik Jäkel 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.
The terraces19 Mar 2035
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Boardroom19 Mar 2035
No signings allowed at Paralimni
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Dylan López ran the middle of the pitch — 7.58
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.58, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jason Meerstadt, and the manager let it.
Match17 Mar 2035
Paralimni caught on 88 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then AE Kition scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
A mark of 7.70, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.