Marked for Pedro Mendes
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
Thanos Petsos breaks a bone — 69 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces14 May 2029
The mood at OFI 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.
Market14 May 2029
“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.
Market14 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Panagiotis Katsikas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 May 2029
A falling-out at OFI
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
Lorenzo Dickmann 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.
Squad14 May 2029
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout14 May 2029
Thanos Petsos knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thanos Petsos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 May 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Apr 2029
Thanos Petsos breaks a bone — 98 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces16 Apr 2029
The mood at OFI 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Apr 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Panagiotis Katsikas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A falling-out at OFI
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Dickmann 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Borja González asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Spyros Angelidis has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at OFI 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Thanos Petsos out for 123 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Pressure builds in the OFI boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Thiago Nuss 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market26 Mar 2029
Luca Cavion has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A row about effort at OFI
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Dickmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Panagiotis Symelidis and OFI agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch26 Mar 2029
Klidman Lilo’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Volos NPS. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Thanos Petsos knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thanos Petsos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Mar 2029
The name of Aaron Leya Iseka keeps appearing in other people's back pages. OFI say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Thanos Petsos out for 131 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces19 Mar 2029
The mood at OFI 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.
Market19 Mar 2029
“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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at OFI
Sotiris Tsiloulis 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A row about effort at OFI
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Nascimento was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market19 Mar 2029
José Pérez returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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 dugout19 Mar 2029
Spyros Angelidis has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at OFI 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
OFI put the manager on notice
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Mar 2029
“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.
Market5 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Edgar Antunes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edgar Antunes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pedro Mendes commits to OFI for another 2 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Tempers go at OFI
Thiago Nuss 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at OFI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Dickmann 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. OFI have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Borja González
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces25 Dec 2028
The mood at OFI 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Aaron Leya Iseka: 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.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Dec 2028
“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.
Match23 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for OFI
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around OFI are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A falling-out at OFI
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A row about effort at OFI
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Nascimento was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Mendes, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. OFI told Gerson Sousa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at OFI
Thiago Nuss 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Diogo Nascimento 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. OFI had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market18 Dec 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Zisis Karachalios has his answer from OFI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match16 Dec 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Levadiakos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Augusto Lucero
“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 dugout18 Dec 2028
the manager: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Rodrigo Abreu: 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.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at OFI
Thiago Nuss 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Lorenzo Dickmann 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.
Match18 Nov 2028
OFI get the job done against Asteras
A 2‑1 win over Asteras, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Pedro Mendes
“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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.60, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Ninety minutes of Aaron Leya Iseka at his very best
Marked 8.47. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at OFI.
In brief
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Match
Halfway: OFI sit in position 7
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The dugout
the manager: “That is the standard”
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The dugout
No place in the plan for Kosta Aleksić