Marked for Greg Taylor
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Panetolikos
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Panetolikos is running low.
Squad21 Jun 2027
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Kostas Thymianis 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market21 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Živko Živković may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Guirin
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Jun 2027
PAOK up to position 2
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market14 Jun 2027
PAOK get their man
The chase for Dereck Kutesa ended with $3.3M changing hands and AEK out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Mijat Gaćinović joins from AEK in a deal worth $1.9M. Now comes the harder part.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Andrija Živković 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
Andrija Živković 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 PAOK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Kiril Despodov
10 goals and a season average of 7.55 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Andrija Živković 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Kiril Despodov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to PAOK.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.93 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.80 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market1 Feb 2027
The Greg Taylor conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: OFI will make the call about Greg Taylor this week. PAOK have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
PAOK say no — this time
The offer from Panetolikos for Greg Taylor 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Jan 2027
The fee is $890.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Aris Thessaloniki drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at PAOK
Giorgos Giakoumakis 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Kiril Despodov
9 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match16 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten PAOK
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
11 goals and a season average of 7.60 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. PAOK have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Marked 8.94 — 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Marked 8.74 — 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.72, and no argument anywhere in the ground.