119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akritas Chlorakas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Akritas Chlorakas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Anorthosis for Alberto 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akritas Chlorakas can pretend not to have heard.
Anthony Limbombe 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.
Akritas Chlorakas asked and Agia Napa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Anthony Limbombe 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akritas Chlorakas, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mitar Ergelaš 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.
Position 8, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Christos Loizou to a room that had heard them before.
Anthony Limbombe 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was José Romo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Akritas Chlorakas.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mitar Ergelaš 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Christos Loizou could afford to be generous.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is José Romo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Akritas Chlorakas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Akritas Chlorakas is saying, and nobody at Achyronas-Onisilos is enjoying the guessing.
Nenad Gavrić 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.
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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Achyronas-Onisilos know which stage they are at.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Achyronas-Onisilos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Achyronas-Onisilos have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Achyronas-Onisilos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have shaken hands with Iraklis Gerolakkou; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Rustavi for Andreas Athanasiou 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.3M — a club that wants Bernat Guiu enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akritas Chlorakas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Slobodan Sladojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Akritas Chlorakas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.