Marked for Lenos Sofroniou
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Mar 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Jovan Lukić 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 Mar 2031
Words at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhojan Valencia 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.
Market3 Mar 2031
“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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad3 Mar 2031
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nicolás Andereggen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
Juan Cejas gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Juan Cejas is on it.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
The manager makes an example of Lenos Sofroniou
“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.
Market3 Mar 2031
Jhojan Valencia is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Konstantinos Poursaitidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Feb 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Salvatore Valentini and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
Emmanuel Lomotey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“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.
Market24 Feb 2031
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ethnikos Achnas could get for him.
Market24 Feb 2031
“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
Squad20 Jan 2031
17 goals and a season average of 7.47. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market20 Jan 2031
Simone Foti has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ethnikos Achnas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simone Foti has agreed terms with Ermis for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Jovan Lukić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Jan 2031
1‑2 to Apollon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
Luis Sierra 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.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pieros Kastanos after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolás Andereggen is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad30 Sep 2030
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Sep 2030
Nea Salamis are out and Ethnikos Achnas go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match28 Sep 2030
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Doxa will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Antonis Koumis, 33, rolls back the years — 8.27
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ethnikos Achnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Sep 2030
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ethnikos Achnas have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Neofytos Michail and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Sep 2030
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market2 Sep 2030
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
“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.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Window shuts: 18 in, 13 out at Ethnikos Achnas
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomáš Jeřábek is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match31 Aug 2030
3‑4 to Aris, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Konstantinos Poursaitidis 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
Steady
Squad8 Jul 2030
137 days out for Neofytos Michail after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ethnikos Achnas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Jovan Lukić 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.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
Jordy Steins 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 Ethnikos Achnas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
“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.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonis Koumis is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Jul 2030
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Jovan Lukić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Jul 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dimitris Economides is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market1 Jul 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antonis Papoulis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market1 Jul 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Panagiotis Nicolaou has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronan Coughlan, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
When it matters, Juan Cejas 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.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Marios Nicolaou out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
$660.0K settles it between the clubs for Darío Poveda
Nea Salamis have accepted the money. What Ethnikos Achnas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris have kept their man, and Ethnikos Achnas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Neofytos Michail and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Lomotey 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 dugout10 Jun 2030
“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.
Market10 Jun 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ethnikos Achnas, another week without a signature from Jordy Steins.
Market10 Jun 2030
Lenos Sofroniou is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ethnikos Achnas has been clear about where Lenos Sofroniou stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonis Koumis is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Apr 2030
“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.
Market22 Apr 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Lenos Sofroniou: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ethnikos Achnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad22 Apr 2030
Panagiotis Andreou 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Axel Hermenier 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.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
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.
Market22 Apr 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ethnikos Achnas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Roberto Vargas 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 Ethnikos Achnas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Apr 2030
Valentinos Merkis damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ethnikos Achnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Panagiotis Andreou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Axel Hermenier 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Ethnikos Achnas are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Emmanuel Lomotey is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Mar 2030
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ethnikos Achnas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Roberto Vargas: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ethnikos Achnas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Mar 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Lomotey and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Panagiotis Andreou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Emmanuel Lomotey 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.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
Wages eat 90% of everything Ethnikos Achnas earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Emmanuel Lomotey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Sep 2029
Dimitris Theodorou damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
Match22 Sep 2029
4‑0, and Juan Cejas took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Ethnikos Achnas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad24 Sep 2029
The match ball belongs to Juan Cejas, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Age has not caught Jordy Peffer yet — 9.07
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Panagiotis Andreou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
A performance of 9.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronan Coughlan, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cristian Marai commits to Ethnikos Achnas for another 4 years.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Lenos Sofroniou dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2029
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ethnikos Achnas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match15 Sep 2029
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Ethnikos Achnas are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Lomotey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yanis Bastaraud and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 4 years.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Lenos Sofroniou
“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.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Lenos Sofroniou
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
When it matters, Juan Cejas 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.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ethnikos Achnas now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Sep 2029
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dimitris Theodorou has just signed for Ethnikos Achnas, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Sep 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Ethnikos Achnas until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
Everything agreed with Apollon, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jordy Peffer and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
APOEL will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tomás Jakos has pre-agreed a move to Ethnikos Achnas, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match1 Sep 2029
0‑2 to Aris, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Aug 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ethnikos Achnas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market20 Aug 2029
Pafos come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ethnikos Achnas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ethnikos Achnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Neneco 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Emmanuel Lomotey 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 targets20 Aug 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Market20 Aug 2029
The Juan Cejas story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Cejas signs something — a contract at Ethnikos Achnas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
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 Lenos Sofroniou has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ethnikos Achnas have done the hard part with Apollon, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Neneco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Lomotey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Lenos Sofroniou
“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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Albin Nygårds commits to Ethnikos Achnas for another 4 years.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Ethnikos Achnas have made the call to Aris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.