29 appearances at Vojvodina and the goals keep coming. Olympiacos are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Durán 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Michalis Papadopoulos on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.50 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nobody at Olympiacos 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Olympiacos had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
César Tárrega 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jhon Durán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
0‑1 against Legia. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Pablo Barrios 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Stefan Ortega will call it something else in private.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Olympiacos will be judged on one thing only.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jhon Durán 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.
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 Jhon Durán is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Panserraikos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Unai López has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Charis Tsingaras trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
17 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The name of Joel Roca has come up in conversations Olympiacos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Jhon Durán 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Jorge Herrando has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Olympiacos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad21 Aug 2028
7 new faces, and Olympiacos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Olympiacos, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Jhon Durán is on it.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Lorenzo Pirola is somebody else's player now, and $700.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Eddie Salcedo is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Olympiacos paid $5.3M and AEK took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Eddie Salcedo has just signed for AEK, and for once the answer mattered.
AEK offered $1.2M; PAOK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Nobody at AEK 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AEK are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Volos NPS waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elmin Rastoder has just signed for Olympiacos, and for once the answer mattered.
AEK paid $700.0K and Olympiacos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Olympiacos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Unai López trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$790.0K on the table at Olympiacos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Breel Embolo 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.
The name of Roman Yaremchuk has come up in conversations AEK were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AEK has been clear about where Barnabás Varga stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Lovro Majer is on it.
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panathinaikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
Kings Kangwa 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.
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 Azzedine Ounahi is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panathinaikos has been clear about where Rick Jonkers stands, which is more than many ever get.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Elmin Rastoder is somebody else's player now, and $366.7K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AEK have done the hard part with Olympiacos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
AEK asked and OFI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at AEK until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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.
AEK ran out of time with Olympiacos. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Breel Embolo 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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
A 1‑1 win over Levadiakos, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
A brace, and Breel Embolo takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Breel Embolo provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
1‑1 against De Graafschap, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Elmin Rastoder was at the centre of the description.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Robin Hranáč is living that version at AEK, and it tends to show in the first month.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AEK pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes AEK will be judged on one thing only.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Luka Jović 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.
Lazaros Rota and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and AEK are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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 Barnabás Varga is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lovro Majer signs something — a contract at AEK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AEK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ondrej Duda has written the date down.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and AEK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Honved for Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
Chiquinho 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.
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 Oleksandr Zubkov is on it.
Footballers are supposed to be professionals about where a teammate used to play. Most of the time they manage it. This is one of the times they have not.
“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.
There are signings and there are signings that come with a second helping of satisfaction. AEK have taken Elmin Rastoder from a club they measure themselves against, and the pleasure of that will outlast the transfer window.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Elmin Rastoder has, at AEK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Luka Jović 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.
Nobody at AEK 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iñaki Peña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Panathinaikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A loan enquiry to Wycombe Wanderers: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AEK have done the hard part with Panathinaikos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AEK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Niclas Eliasson and AEK agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Luka Jović 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.
31 games, 4 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at AEK now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Panathinaikos offered $1.7M; Olympiacos said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Kings Kangwa 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.
Business between these two is never simply business. Panathinaikos wanted Sven Köhler, AEK did not want to sell to them of all clubs, and the signature at the end of it says who won that argument.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
Panathinaikos offered $2.3M; AEK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Panathinaikos know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
PAOK paid $380.0K and Panathinaikos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Christian Kouamé is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tractor have kept their man, and Panathinaikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Kifisia 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.
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and AEK 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.4M — a club that wants Benny enough to be asked twice.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Junior Mendieta 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panathinaikos has been clear about where Étienne Camara stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Elmin Rastoder's mistake
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Panathinaikos know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Facundo Pellistri 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.
25 appearances and 10 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
7 new faces, and Panathinaikos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Kouamé signs something — a contract at Panathinaikos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Lucas Chaves a promise
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Vicente Taborda obliged against OFI. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Panathinaikos.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Elmin Rastoder's mistake