Marked for Yoël Armougom
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Panetolikos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Korona waiting with a shirt. Nobody at PAOK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Panathinaikos wanted more than $5.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market11 Jan 2027
The shirt still fits. Karol Świderski is back at PAOK, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market11 Jan 2027
Yoël Armougom arrives at PAOK in a $1.7M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. PAOK have paid $1.7M for Yoël Armougom, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PAOK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Filip Bainović gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filip Bainović has just signed for PAOK, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The deal with AEK 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at PAOK
Jordi Alba 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
20 matches without a win for Panserraikos
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Panserraikos are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Jan 2027
There were 14 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match11 Jan 2027
Position 14, 12 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.
Market11 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 Panserraikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panserraikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Yoël Armougom has gone, the accounts have $1.7M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ethan Brooks pops up at the right end — 7.73
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market11 Jan 2027
Business is business: Yoël Armougom goes
PAOK paid $1.7M and Panserraikos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market4 Jan 2027
Mady Camara hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PAOK can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
PAOK say no — this time
The offer from OH Leuven for Giannis Michailidis 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The offer went to Panserraikos 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The offer went to OFI 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
An offer of $310.0K for Tasos Donis
PAOK have gone to Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Christos Zafeiris 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
PAOK cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jan 2027
19 matches without a win for Panserraikos
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Panserraikos are no longer polite ones.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Panserraikos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market4 Jan 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Pressure builds in the Panserraikos boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vernon de Marco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Panserraikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Tinaglini 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Panserraikos have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panserraikos has been clear about where Stéphane Omeonga stands, which is more than many ever get.