Marked for Ilias Chatzitheodoridis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match28 Aug 2027
5‑1, and Aitor Cantalapiedra took the headlines on an afternoon when everything OFI tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gil Vicente keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Panargiakos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad30 Aug 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” OFI may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Thiago Nuss 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at OFI
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at OFI is running low.
Market2 Aug 2027
OFI say no — this time
The offer from Panargiakos for Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
$350.0K settles it between the clubs for Dimitris Monastirlis
PAOK have accepted the money. What OFI do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Nikos Christogeorgos has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market2 Aug 2027
Aaron Leya Iseka has left for AEL Larisa in a $1.9M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 targets2 Aug 2027
OFI asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at OFI
Borja González 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
Niki Volos come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and OFI did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Ilias Chatzitheodoridis again, and this time the name on the line is Panargiakos. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at OFI
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$160.0K on the table at Iraklis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
OFI offered $410.0K; PAOK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
João Silva 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Mar 2027
OFI finish in position 8
31 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market15 Mar 2027
Ilija Vukotić 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at OFI
Borja González 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
A bad afternoon for OFI against Asteras
0‑1 to Asteras, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Mar 2027
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Spyridon Tzolis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Neira, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Aaron Leya Iseka to Volos NPS has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to OFI with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
OFI asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Aitor Cantalapiedra will call it something else in private.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.58, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.50 on the card, and the OFI support went home talking about one name.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Egaleo deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ilija Vukotić reports back to OFI with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ponferradina is saying, and nobody at OFI is enjoying the guessing.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 targets25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Borja González
“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.
Match23 Jan 2027
OFI and Kifisia take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market11 Jan 2027
Niki Volos come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and OFI did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. OFI have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Thiago Nuss 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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 targets11 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Pablo Lara 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aitor Cantalapiedra. 2‑0 against AEL Larisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.12 — 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Spyridon Tzolis on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Borja González 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Pablo Lara left out for tactical reasons at OFI
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Eliandro: 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.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match31 Oct 2026
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Panetolikos made OFI work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Pablo Lara has had enough of the bench
“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 OFI will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Spyridon Tzolis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to OFI's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at OFI has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at OFI
Pablo Lara 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 Oct 2026
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Juan Neira
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for OFI is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Match17 Oct 2026
OFI rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Kifisia had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market19 Oct 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at OFI has been clear about where Giannis Theodosoulakis stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
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Match
OFI share the spoils with Kifisia
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No place in the plan for Pablo Lara
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at OFI
Pablo Lara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at OFI
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ilias Chatzitheodoridis has his answer from OFI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilias Chatzitheodoridis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Ginés Sorroche has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at OFI 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at OFI that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes Juan Neira a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFI. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
PAOK come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and OFI did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kampaniakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Aaron Leya Iseka reports back to OFI with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
OFI close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eddie Salcedo 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Espanol have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
OFI have started building around Juan Neira
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aitor Cantalapiedra and OFI agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at OFI
Dimitris Nikolaou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Nikos Marinakis again, and this time the name on the line is Panionios. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to AZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Juan Quintero is in the works
OFI have made the call to Cortulua. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
OFI are still strangers to each other
6 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.