Rominigue Kouamé 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evangelos Andreou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AEL Larisa pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miguel Cuesta and AEL Larisa agree another 3 years.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kostas Siovas was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the AEL Larisa dressing room was either.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutVasilis Sourlis has become a man the manager trusts
Everything agreed with Valladolid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CE Europa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adnane Ghailan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and CE Europa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mario Gaspar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Arnau Campeny's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kaïs Henot
“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 CE Europa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Toni Caravaca has gone, the accounts have $810.0K 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.
Everything agreed with Real Sociedad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to Mérida 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.
Zamora paid $810.0K and CE Europa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Mario Gaspar 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CE Europa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Franco Soldano 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at CE Europa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Gaspar 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.
Everybody at CE Europa saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marcel Sgró has his answer from CE Europa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Sanluqueño next, and one man in the CE Europa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at CE Europa 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fabricio Acosta has just signed for CE Europa, and for once the answer mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Adnane Ghailan again, and this time the name on the line is Sillamae Kalev. CE Europa are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CE Europa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Castellón 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at CE Europa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Gaspar 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.
Khalid Noureddine 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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CE Europa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at CE Europa can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CE Europa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” José Navarro after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 CE Europa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” José Navarro was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the CE Europa dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Álex Plà