Marked for Spyros Risvanis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dimitris Kaloskamis did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.24 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. AEL Larisa know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Boca Juniors is saying, and nobody at AEL Larisa is enjoying the guessing.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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 dugout25 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
A goal on 85 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for AEL Larisa
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around AEL Larisa are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén Pardo 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout16 Nov 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 Emmanouil Manolas left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Vasilis Sourlis
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fabián Castillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Volos NPS 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Yvann Maçon 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at AEL Larisa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rubén Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
AEL Larisa ran out of time with OFI. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Panathinaikos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fotios Tzavellas 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Petros Ioannidis 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikos Grammatikakis commits to AEL Larisa for another 4 years.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Emmanouil Manolas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Spyros Risvanis
“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.