Marked for Robert Ergas
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Cédric Nuozzi: 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.” Aris have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market27 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yacine Bourhane will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Aris
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steeve Yago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Sep 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 Aris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rody Junior Effaghe. 1‑0 against Pafos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Robert Ergas 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Valentinos Laban could afford to be generous.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Aug 2027
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Gustavo Pajé decided nobody was going anywhere. Omonoia had no time left to answer.
Market30 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Aris
Gédéon Kalulu 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Chahid el Allachi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
4 academy graduates step up at Aris
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Robert Ergas has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market30 Aug 2027
One of our own: Nikos Merkis joins the Aris first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikos Merkis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Aug 2027
Agia Napa come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Aris did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Gédéon Kalulu 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Aris
Yacine Bourhane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nuno Rafael and Aris agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Robert Ergas gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Robert Ergas is on it.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Yacine Bourhane
“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 dugout2 Aug 2027
Robert Ergas 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 Robert Ergas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Robert Ergas 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 Aris can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Alex Opoku Sarfo again, and this time the name on the line is Agia Napa. Aris are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market7 Jun 2027
Nuno Rafael has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Aris
Gédéon Kalulu 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Aris
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steeve Yago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Malien have kept their man, and Aris go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” David Lelle commits to Aris for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Werton was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Aris
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aris are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Steeve Yago 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 Aris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rody Junior Effaghe, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Aris training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Valentinos Laban chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Aris pick somebody else ahead of Elisson
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match26 Dec 2026
Aris and Pafos cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Pafos came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Robert Ergas gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Robert Ergas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
A hiding for Aris
Beaten 0‑3 by AEL, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match7 Nov 2026
The run is over for Aris
8 matches without defeat, and then AEL. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Aris
Steeve Yago and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market9 Nov 2026
One of our own: Grigoris Elia joins the Aris first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grigoris Elia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Aris
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Grigoris Kastanos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Aris dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Werton runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Ergas, and the manager let it.