From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Nov 2027
5 matches without a win for Asteras
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Asteras are no longer polite ones.
Match13 Nov 2027
Beaten 1-2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Julián Chicco
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Squad15 Nov 2027
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Asteras have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market15 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Asteras know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Jun 2027
Asteras are in real trouble now
Position 12, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market14 Jun 2027
AEL Larisa pay $290.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Asteras still without a manager
13 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Asteras that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The move was somebody else's story. What it left behind was a dressing-room stall nobody has taken and a player who keeps looking at it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Julián Bartolo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Mar 2027
Asteras sink to position 12
22 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Arled Cadavid 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 Asteras, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
PAOK come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Asteras did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Panagiotis Tsintotas knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match16 Jan 2027
2-2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad18 Jan 2027
No place for Robert Ivanov on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Asteras pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.20 with 5 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
“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.
Match9 Jan 2027
2-2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Pressure builds in the Asteras boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.19 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Asteras know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Yenisey to sit and watch. I want to come back to Asteras and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The award goes to Alessandro Bonetti, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 1-1 draw with Olympiacos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Robert Ivanov 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 Asteras, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
$346.1K taken back off the Asteras table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Market4 Jan 2027
Asteras have made Evgeniy Yablonskiy available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Asteras can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 164% of everything Asteras 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Panathinaikos made Asteras work for it, but the scoreboard read 2-0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Robert Ivanov
“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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Asteras and OFI 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.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Julián Chicco
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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.
Match10 Oct 2026
7 matches without a win for Asteras
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Asteras are no longer polite ones.
Squad12 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Yenisey to sit and watch. I want to come back to Asteras and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matías Ocampo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 250% of everything Asteras 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Volos NPS left with the points after a 0-2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Asteras have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Asteras that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Julián Bartolo keeps the shirt for now, at Asteras's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Asteras, 1-0 the final word against AEL Larisa in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Robert Ivanov
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Dimitrios Samaris is 16, and Asteras have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 17, and nobody at Asteras signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 16, and nobody at Asteras signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A new face in his position, and Julián Bartolo suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Asteras have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Bruno Pérez unhappy with how he is being used
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Bruno Pérez has let it be known that he does not like the way Asteras are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.