Marked for Spyros Risvanis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Egaleo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Egaleo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Egaleo
Aleksandr Šapovalov 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 Feb 2027
Spyros Risvanis 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 Feb 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages swallow 108% of the Egaleo income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad15 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 Egaleo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Antonio Salado 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 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Egaleo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad15 Feb 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Egaleo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksandr Šapovalov signs something — a contract at Egaleo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market15 Feb 2027
A season-long audition: Panserraikos still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Egaleo's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Kostas Tabas: 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.” Egaleo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Egaleo
Spyros Risvanis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Egaleo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Salado 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 targets8 Feb 2027
Egaleo asked and Panetolikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Egaleo know it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jonatan Lima wants one last season at home
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Egaleo know now that the thought has arrived.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with David Crespo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market8 Feb 2027
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Spyros Abartzidis is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hellas Syros waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Egaleo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Egaleo 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 targets1 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Egaleo have done the hard part with Aris Thessaloniki, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Egaleo
Spyros Risvanis 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Egaleo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Navas 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 targets1 Feb 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Tomás 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patryk Dragon and Egaleo agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan move for Yoël Armougom is in the works
Egaleo have made the call to Panserraikos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and PAS Giannina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Egaleo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 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 Egaleo can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AEK keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 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 Egaleo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Egaleo asked and Panetolikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Antonio Navas 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Nuno Silva
“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.
Match9 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Antonio Salado’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Egaleo.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A defender's goal wins it for AEL Larisa — 7.97
1 for Jorge Fernandes, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Jorge Fernandes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AEL Larisa have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
AEL Larisa asked and Iraklis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Davíð Kristján Ólafsson is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Wages eat 94% of everything AEL Larisa 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Atromitos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match28 Dec 2026
AEL Larisa are in real trouble now
Position 12, 9 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Gaël Kakuta, 35, rolls back the years — 7.95
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yvann Maçon 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gaël Kakuta. 1‑0 against Panserraikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Joris Gouache
“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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Manolis Retsos on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Vasilis Sourlis has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AEL Larisa 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AEL Larisa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
João Pinto 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Jorge Fernandes
“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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Spyros Risvanis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AEL Larisa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Pione Sisto 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
Odivan signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Odivan and AEL Larisa agree another 3 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christos Albanis, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Erick Ferigra is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pione Sisto’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AEL Larisa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Andreas Makris keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AEL Larisa say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Facundo Pérez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AEL Larisa 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
Nikos Melissas has seen what the next man earns
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 AEL Larisa that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yvann Maçon 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 AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Manolis Retsos after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
A test against the best for AEL Larisa
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Olympiacos.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Erick Ferigra 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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Olympiacos next, and one man in the AEL Larisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market21 Sep 2026
Yvann Maçon linked with a move away
The name of Yvann Maçon keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AEL Larisa say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Andreas Makris
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Manolis Retsos left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Erick Ferigra is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
4.54. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Benny was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Erick Ferigra knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Erick Ferigra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Panathinaikos next, and one man in the AEL Larisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market14 Sep 2026
The name of Andreas Makris keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AEL Larisa say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting Cristal have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
João Pinto arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. João Pinto has, at AEL Larisa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$640.0K on the table at Volos NPS. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Spyros Risvanis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Andreas Makris 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The formation has left João Pinto behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AEL Larisa will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEL Larisa, another week without a signature from João Pinto.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Asteras next, and one man in the AEL Larisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
Yvann Maçon linked with a move away
The name of Yvann Maçon keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AEL Larisa say nothing, which says plenty.