Marked for Christos Belevonis
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Apr 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match3 Apr 2034
Every point is an argument now for Panetolikos
Position 12 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market3 Apr 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Apr 2034
Ilias Panagakos: 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.” Panetolikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 Apr 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christos Prevezianos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panetolikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Apr 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panetolikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Mascheroni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Apr 2034
The manager makes an example of Charles Baah
“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.
Market3 Apr 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panetolikos, another week without a signature from Bruno Mascheroni.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Mar 2034
15 matches without a win for Panetolikos
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Panetolikos are no longer polite ones.
Match4 Mar 2034
0‑4 against Olympiacos, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Panetolikos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match6 Mar 2034
Panetolikos are in real trouble now
Position 12, 18 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.
Market6 Mar 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Mar 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panetolikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Mar 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christos Belevonis commits to Panetolikos for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Bruno Mascheroni 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.
Match4 Mar 2034
3 matches without a goal for Panetolikos
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Dec 2033
No end in sight to Panetolikos's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Panetolikos has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings19 Dec 2033
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.71, and 2 involvements.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Vasilis Kakionis 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.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Panetolikos is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charles Baah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vasilis Kakionis, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Dec 2033
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Match19 Dec 2033
The half-term report on Panetolikos
Position 11, 13 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.
Match13 Dec 2033
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Panetolikos had all but put away. Panathinaikos will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Nov 2032
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Maxim Axyutin breaks a bone — 48 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market22 Nov 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panetolikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Diabé Bolumbu 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 terraces22 Nov 2032
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match20 Nov 2032
Panetolikos keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Marked 7.58 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad22 Nov 2032
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panetolikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match18 Sep 2032
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Diabé Bolumbu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Kostas Souvlatzis 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 dugout20 Sep 2032
The manager makes an example of Diabé Bolumbu
“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.
Market20 Sep 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kostas Souvlatzis has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Panetolikos.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Marked 8.11 — 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 dugout20 Sep 2032
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.