Marked for Dani Silva
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
No mercy from Pafos
Ethnikos Achnas will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pafos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Age has not caught David Luiz yet — 8.13
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pafos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Oct 2026
David Luiz 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 Pafos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Pafos do not lose
6 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dani Silva 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
125% of the income goes out in wages at Pafos
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
No mercy from Pafos
Paralimni will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pafos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Both of them Dani Silva's — 8.32
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Pafos
Dani Silva 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Pafos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Luiz 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Biel runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pafos.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of André Anderson
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Fotis Artymatas, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Pafos have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
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Squad
Dani Silva finally opens his account
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The dugout
Jajá left out for tactical reasons at Pafos
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The dugout
Jay Gorter asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Pafos close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 5 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
The phone has started ringing about André Anderson again, and this time the name on the line is Hapoel Kfar Saba. Pafos are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dani Silva 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pau Ferrer wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Pafos will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Ken Sema is still paying for one afternoon at Pafos
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Keké question follows Pafos around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Keké’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cortulua is saying, and nobody at Pafos is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Pafos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dani Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Pafos asked and La Equidad 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 targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to O'Higgins: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No place for Pau Ferrer in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pafos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Pafos would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market24 Aug 2026
Still no ink between Pafos and Keké
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pafos, another week without a signature from Keké.
Market24 Aug 2026
The Pêpê question follows Pafos around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pêpê’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
David Luiz is starting to belong
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to AEL
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Yoram Zague
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pafos
David Luiz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Pafos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Silva 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Pafos asked and Stripfing 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Cortulua have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left André Anderson behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pafos will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market17 Aug 2026
The David Luiz story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Luiz signs something — a contract at Pafos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.