35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Olympiacos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 The request is on a desk at AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Niki Volos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
487 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and AEK know what they have.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
AEK close the window on a squad of their own making
34 in and 25 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Osaze Urhoghide will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nader Saad has, at AEK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Al Ahly did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $6.3M for Oumar Konaté, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
5 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from NK Maribor for Adriano Jagušić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal with Al Ahly is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anas Ibrahimović has, at AEK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AEK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
The dugoutZois Karargyris back under a manager who knows him
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer went to AZ this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The phone has started ringing about Shola Shoretire again, and this time the name on the line is Anagennisi Karditsa. AEK are listening politely and promising nothing.
Dinamo Bucharest did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.4M for Pavlo Isenko, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The new man at AEK has worked with Zois Karargyris before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavlo Isenko 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.
Maxim Nikiforov 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deal with Dinamo Bucharest is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Joshua Acosta 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.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AEK will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
AEK have gone to Dinamo Bucharest 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atromitos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Joshua Acosta 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.
Dimitris Kottas 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thijs Oosting is on it.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Arman Nersesyan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
AEK offered $5.6M; Olympiacos 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.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Atromitos will make the call about Shola Shoretire this week. AEK have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Joshua Acosta 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.
Squad16 Jul 2035
12 new faces, and AEK 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEK, another week without a signature from Thomas Strakosha.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
AEK offered $270.0K; Niki Volos 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for AEK is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Cheick Kanté 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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Adriano Jagušić wants continental football; whether AEK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
$280.0K was the most the club would pay and Atromitos were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and AEK know which stage they are at.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Acosta 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
AEK asked and Botafogo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deal with Olympiacos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
AEK offered $1.7M; Sporting CP 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $300.0K — a club that wants Lars David enough to be asked twice.
$280.0K on the table at Atromitos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and AEK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Arman Nersesyan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.7M on the table at Sporting CP. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hunór Batzula has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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 chase for Hugo Alba ended with $300.0K changing hands and PAS Giannina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Adriano Jagušić wants continental football; whether AEK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Julián Malatini has, at AEK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Acosta 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.
Julián Malatini arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Nobody at AEK 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Hunór Batzula 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Shola Shoretire trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEK, another week without a signature from Romuald Sawadogo.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Romuald Sawadogo is on it.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Thijs Oosting is 34, with 446 appearances behind him, and AEK will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Michalis Voriazidis has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Romuald Sawadogo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout6 Nov 2034
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Lazaros Tzavellas to a room that had heard them before.
Squad6 Nov 2034
A place in the month's best eleven for Hugo Oliveira
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hugo Oliveira has come out of that comparison in the side, and AEK have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at AEK 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.
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.
The deal that would have taken Shola Shoretire to AEL Larisa has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AEK with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“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 AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.
AEK and Asteras have settled on $190.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at AEK 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $200.0K — a club that wants Dino Grozdanić enough to be asked twice.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
In brief
SquadA move Cheick Kanté would have made for nothing
Player ratingsThe game went through Thijs Oosting — 6.92
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
In brief
SquadTom Louchet falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ilioupoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Konstantinos Angelakis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Louchet 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.
Nobody at AEK 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kavala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hunór Batzula has just signed for AEK, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Pirola 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.
AEK asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
AEK asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Viktor Lyubenov 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.