Marked for Benny
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Javi Manquillo
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panetolikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match23 Oct 2027
0‑4 to PAOK, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match23 Oct 2027
4 matches without a win for Panetolikos
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Panetolikos are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Unai Garcia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ognjen Ugrešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Uroš Stević, and the manager let it.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Panetolikos are still strangers to each other
8 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Vasileios Bakasetas to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
Javi Manquillo damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
Supporters organise against the Panetolikos board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market13 Sep 2027
Benny 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 Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
No sign of nerves from Ognjen Ugrešić at 21 — 8.17
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ognjen Ugrešić did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Panetolikos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olimpija Ljubljana, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Unai Garcia 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandru Măţan. 3‑2 against Levadiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Ognjen Ugrešić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panetolikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 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. Panetolikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match9 Aug 2027
15 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market9 Aug 2027
Benny 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 Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vangelis Noikokyrakis has, at Panetolikos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Estudiantes keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 Panetolikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 May 2027
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Panetolikos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 May 2027
Diego Esteban 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 Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 May 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panetolikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panetolikos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niko Galešić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 May 2027
Javi Manquillo without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Javi Manquillo was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad3 May 2027
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.
The dugout3 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Manrique trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Benny’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Panetolikos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Apr 2027
Diego Esteban 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 Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Panetolikos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Apr 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panetolikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Youssouph Badji 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Niko Galešić 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Nikola Stajić
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Panetolikos know it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Kosta Aleksić slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kosta Aleksić is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager's exit leaves Niko Galešić exposed
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The dugout
Niko Galešić asks for a word with the manager
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Market
The Benny talk will not go away
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Garcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Lazar Kojić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Vasileios Bakasetas to a room that had heard them before.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The first one for Benny
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Panetolikos have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Mateo Mejía knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Panetolikos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market21 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandru Măţan signs something — a contract at Panetolikos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
12 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.
Match30 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Panetolikos
Position 13 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market30 Nov 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 Panetolikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Panetolikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Garcia 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 120% of everything Panetolikos earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Panetolikos know it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Something was said to Kosta Aleksić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Vasileios Bakasetas chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Panetolikos's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Panetolikos has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market23 Nov 2026
Kosta Aleksić 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 Panetolikos can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Unai Garcia 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 Panetolikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mateo Mejía 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Mateo Mejía 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vasileios Bakasetas to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 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. Panetolikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Labros Smyrlis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Asteras for Lazar Kojić 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Unai Garcia 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 Panetolikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stylianos Tsimikas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
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Squad
The formation has left Benny behind
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Squad
12 new faces, and Panetolikos are still learning each other
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The dugout
The manager comes out for Diego Esteban