Marked for Eero Lod
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Oct 2045
Georgy Shalamkov damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Market16 Oct 2045
“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.
Match14 Oct 2045
4 matches without a win for Veles
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Veles are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Oct 2045
A bad afternoon for Veles against Mashuk
1‑2 to Mashuk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Oct 2045
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 Oct 2045
Veles 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.
Squad16 Oct 2045
No hiding place for Eero Lod
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eero Lod, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Oct 2045
Nobody could get near Pedro Reis
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Oct 2045
When it matters, Pedro Reis plays
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2045
A fracture rules Isaac Bridge out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Aug 2045
Tempers go at Veles
Eero Lod 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.
Squad14 Aug 2045
Paul André 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 Aug 2045
168% of the income goes out in wages at Veles
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market14 Aug 2045
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Georgy Shalamkov has his answer from Veles; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad14 Aug 2045
Too much change too quickly at Veles
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings14 Aug 2045
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2045
Veles and Mashuk cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Mashuk came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market14 Aug 2045
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Veles know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom10 Jul 2045
The scrutiny sharpens at Veles
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Veles is running low.
Squad10 Jul 2045
A fracture rules Isaac Bridge out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 Jul 2045
Paul André 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.
Squad10 Jul 2045
Eero Lod gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2045
Too much change too quickly at Veles
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market10 Jul 2045
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Valentin Pavlyuchenko signs something — a contract at Veles or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jun 2045
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jun 2045
A fracture rules Isaac Bridge out for 123 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Jun 2045
“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.
Squad26 Jun 2045
Tempers go at Veles
Eero Lod 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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2045
No signings allowed at Veles
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.
Market26 Jun 2045
Veles and Eero Lod are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2044
KuPS up to position 1
42 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match20 Aug 2044
Whatever happens, KuPS do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad22 Aug 2044
Vasil Milanov is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.25 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Aug 2044
Rayan Jerbi 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.
Player ratings22 Aug 2044
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Squad22 Aug 2044
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Robin Pukki and KuPS agree another 3 years.
Match20 Aug 2044
Honours even between KuPS and HIFK
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad22 Aug 2044
Rayan Jerbi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KuPS will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings22 Aug 2044
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.