Marked for Brian Oliván
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Mijat Gaćinović out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
AEK asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$6.5M was the most the club would pay and Olympiacos 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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
AEK have gone to PAOK 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A falling-out at AEK
Lovro Majer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market23 Aug 2027
Business is business: Jan Repas goes
Volos NPS paid $820.0K and AEK took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad23 Aug 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Market23 Aug 2027
Amor Layouni has left for Asteras in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charalampos Lykogiannis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
80 days out for Mijat Gaćinović after a fracture
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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
AEK had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at El Masry, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market9 Aug 2027
AEL Larisa come back empty-handed
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.
Squad9 Aug 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 AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AEK have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Late improvement for João Mário
At 34 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charalampos Lykogiannis 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Lovro Majer has become a man the manager trusts
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 dugout9 Aug 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonis Tsiftsis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AVS had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match2 Aug 2027
AEK up to position 2
59 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
$7.1M on the table at El Masry. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Niclas Eliasson for 15 days
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.
Squad2 Aug 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 AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Niclas Eliasson 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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Atromitos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Lazaros Rota has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom17 May 2027
AEK have won it
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Match12 May 2027
Whatever happens, AEK do not lose
22 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad17 May 2027
Tomáš Chorý is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.70 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad17 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 130 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 May 2027
Cup progress for AEK
A 2‑1 win over PAOK, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match12 May 2027
Luka Jović wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Luka Jović found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and PAOK went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A brace, and Luka Jović takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Jović provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 May 2027
AEK make home a hard place to visit
12 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.
Squad17 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Brian Oliván breaks a bone — 101 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 May 2027
AEK up to position 2
59 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad10 May 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 AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filipe Relvas 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 dugout10 May 2027
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.
Market10 May 2027
No place for Jan Repas in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jan Repas has his answer from AEK; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout10 May 2027
Kerim Mrabti gets it from the manager
“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.
Market10 May 2027
The Tomáš Chorý talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout10 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Brian Oliván breaks a bone — 111 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charalampos Lykogiannis 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at AEK
Aboubakary Koita 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Filipe Relvas
“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 dugout3 May 2027
A promise honoured at AEK
Something was said to Panagiotis Retsos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout3 May 2027
When it matters, Tomáš Chorý plays
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 dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes Luka Jović a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AEK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Loan watch3 May 2027
14 appearances away from home and 3 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch3 May 2027
23 starts and an average of 6.70. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.