Marked for Alexander Callens
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Feb 2027
14 unbeaten for AEK
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation AEK did not have in the autumn.
Market15 Feb 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Charalampos Lykogiannis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market15 Feb 2027
Shakhtar pay $13.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market15 Feb 2027
AEK say no — this time
The offer from Djurgarden for Zini 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.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
Supporters turn on the $13.6M sale of Oleksandr Zubkov
He is going to Shakhtar, the club has $13.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexander Callens will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at AEK
Răzvan Marin 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
AEK asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Pirola, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match23 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play AEK right now
11 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match20 Jan 2027
AEK through in the cup
A 3‑1 win over Kifisia, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market25 Jan 2027
Lazaros Rota 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 AEK can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets25 Jan 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
$4.9M was the most the club would pay and Gijón 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for AEK
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Petros Mantalos, 35, rolls back the years — 8.43
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.43 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match2 Jan 2027
AEK cannot stop winning
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
Match4 Jan 2027
AEK refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. AEK will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
AEK say no — this time
The offer from El Masry for Kaan Kairinen 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
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asteras have kept their man, and AEK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 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 AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Oleksandr Zubkov
11 goals and a season average of 7.31 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Harold Moukoudi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AEK.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 AEK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
AEK close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AEK heard it as anything else.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Alexander Callens to Volos NPS has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AEK with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandros Tzamalis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at AEK
Lorenzo Pirola and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Charalampos Lykogiannis is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEK can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Petros Mantalos takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Petros Mantalos provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Helsingborg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at AEK
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 AEK players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Match29 Aug 2026
Volos NPS made AEK work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Jeremy Antonisse enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEK
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Alberto Brignoli again, and this time the name on the line is Olympiacos. AEK are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market24 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Petros Mantalos has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at AEK.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at AEK would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Next up at home: Volos NPS, who go into it in position 14. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Oleksandr Zubkov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.