Marked for Simos Mitoglou
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Athens Kallithea had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and AEK did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Simos Mitoglou enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Atromitos wanted more than $480.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AEK have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
In brief
-
Squad
12 new faces, and AEK are still learning each other
-
Squad
A season on the outside for Lovro Majer
-
Squad
A wage question at AEK
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Atromitos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dani García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Godoy Cruz have kept their man, and Atromitos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Simos Mitoglou again, and this time the name on the line is AEK. Atromitos are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Carlos Abeldaño is in the works
Atromitos have made the call to Atlético Tucumán. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Atromitos will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Marlon in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atromitos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Atromitos would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market10 Aug 2026
Lorenzo Pirola arrives at AEK in a $3.8M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. AEK have paid $3.8M for Lorenzo Pirola, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volos NPS have kept their man, and AEK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
AEK offered $1.6M; Atromitos 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Oleksandr Zubkov wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AEK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.7M — a club that wants Simos Mitoglou enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lovro Majer commits to AEK for another 4 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
An offer of $480.0K for Seny Dieng
AEK have gone to Atromitos with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.