Marked for Anastasios Manolas
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Jul 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danil Avramenko
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Jul 2043
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OFI may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Jul 2043
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Jun 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danil Avramenko
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Jun 2043
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Jun 2043
Only the photograph left for Patrik Krejci
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrik Krejci will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Jun 2043
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kian McCusker 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.
Squad22 Jun 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jun 2043
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jun 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danil Avramenko
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Jun 2043
Wesley Natã pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad15 Jun 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jun 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danil Avramenko
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 Jun 2043
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Grigorios Siopis has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Jun 2043
The phone has started ringing about Admir Freuler again, and this time the name on the line is Volos NPS. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market8 Jun 2043
“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.
Squad8 Jun 2043
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wesley Natã commits to OFI for another 2 years.
Squad8 Jun 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jun 2043
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Romano 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.
Market8 Jun 2043
Kifisia are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. OFI will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market8 Jun 2043
At 36, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
In brief
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Boardroom
OFI pull $3.1M back off the table
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Boardroom
The OFI production line keeps running
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Boardroom
OFI were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jun 2043
Danil Avramenko damages knee ligaments — 128 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
Boardroom1 Jun 2043
Pressure builds in the OFI boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces1 Jun 2043
Anger at OFI spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad1 Jun 2043
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Jun 2043
“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.
Squad1 Jun 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jun 2043
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wesley Natã 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.
Market1 Jun 2043
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Richard Walker has his answer from OFI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market1 Jun 2043
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ilias Selleslags may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Apr 2043
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Market20 Apr 2043
Admir Freuler has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Apr 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
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Squad
Anastasios Manolas gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
101% of the income goes out in wages at OFI
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jan 2043
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Match3 Jan 2043
OFI taken apart
0‑3 to Kifisia, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market5 Jan 2043
OFI say no — this time
The offer from Volos NPS for Admir Freuler was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match3 Jan 2043
The wait goes on for OFI
6 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.
Market5 Jan 2043
“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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jan 2043
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stavros Pnevmonidis 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.
Squad5 Jan 2043
Tempers go at OFI
Anastasios Manolas 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.
Player ratings5 Jan 2043
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom5 Jan 2043
Nobody left the OFI dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Dec 2042
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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 ratings29 Dec 2042
Thiago Romano, 36, rolls back the years — 7.88
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match27 Dec 2042
No end in sight to OFI's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at OFI has to find a result from somewhere.
Market29 Dec 2042
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Eleftheriadis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Dec 2042
Stavros Pnevmonidis 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.
Squad29 Dec 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Dec 2042
“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.
Boardroom29 Dec 2042
113% of the income goes out in wages at OFI
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.
Match27 Dec 2042
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Nov 2042
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Squad24 Nov 2042
A fracture rules Nikos Tachtsidis out for 25 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 Nov 2042
Thiago Romano, 36, rolls back the years — 8.23
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market24 Nov 2042
Karl Wolff has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Nov 2042
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stavros Pnevmonidis 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.
Squad24 Nov 2042
Tempers go at OFI
Anastasios Manolas 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Nov 2042
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
Match15 Nov 2042
A hiding for OFI
Beaten 1‑4 by Volos NPS, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad17 Nov 2042
A fracture rules Nikos Tachtsidis out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match15 Nov 2042
8 matches without a win for OFI
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around OFI are no longer polite ones.
Market17 Nov 2042
Only the photograph left for Admir Freuler
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Admir Freuler will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings17 Nov 2042
Up for the corner, and Callum Mackley delivers — 7.69
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Callum Mackley scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match15 Nov 2042
No clean sheets in sight for OFI
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad17 Nov 2042
Stavros Pnevmonidis 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.
Squad17 Nov 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Nov 2042
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Match8 Nov 2042
7 matches without a win for OFI
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around OFI are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Nov 2042
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings10 Nov 2042
Up for the corner, and Admir Freuler delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Admir Freuler scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad10 Nov 2042
Anton Berg says OFI went back on their word
“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.
Squad10 Nov 2042
A muscle injury sidelines Anastasios Manolas for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. OFI will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match8 Nov 2042
OFI leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings10 Nov 2042
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Nov 2042
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Sep 2042
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Donny Berghuis obliged against Volos NPS. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is OFI.
Player ratings29 Sep 2042
Nicolai Christensen could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.69
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.69, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings29 Sep 2042
A brace, and Donny Berghuis takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Donny Berghuis provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market29 Sep 2042
Karl Wolff has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Sep 2042
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stavros Pnevmonidis 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.
Player ratings29 Sep 2042
15 combined actions and 6.52. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad29 Sep 2042
Tempers go at OFI
Anastasios Manolas 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.
Squad29 Sep 2042
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Danil Avramenko and OFI agree another 1 years.
Player ratings29 Sep 2042
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Aug 2042
Stavros Pnevmonidis 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.
Squad18 Aug 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Aug 2042
Nikolai Ojala gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikolai Ojala has just signed for OFI, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jun 2042
Stylianos Siovas damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Market23 Jun 2042
“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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Jun 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jun 2042
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Romano 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.
Squad23 Jun 2042
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexis Mirbach, and the manager let it.
Market23 Jun 2042
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. OFI will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.