Marked for Harold Moukoudi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Oct 2029
26 days out for Diogo Nascimento after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AEK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Oct 2029
Jan Hurtado 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A falling-out at AEK
Gaëtan Laborde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Oct 2029
“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.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Nobody could get near Luka Jović
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Zubkov 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.
Looking ahead1 Oct 2029
The neighbours are next for AEK
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Panathinaikos on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Market1 Oct 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Diogo Nascimento out for 87 days
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.
Market13 Aug 2029
AEK say no — this time
The offer from Olympiacos for James Penrice 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
Stijn Petiet 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antonis Tsiftsis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Aug 2029
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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Filipe Relvas 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 dugout13 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Chumi
“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.
Market13 Aug 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dereck Kutesa has his answer from AEK; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Aug 2029
96 days out for Diogo Nascimento after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
AEK and PAOK have settled on $3.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Christos Papadopoulos has agreed terms with Panserraikos for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A falling-out at AEK
Gaëtan Laborde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market6 Aug 2029
AEK say no — this time
The offer from Kudrivka for Agustín Chávez 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zubkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market6 Aug 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Diogo Nascimento out for 119 days
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.
Market16 Jul 2029
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.
Market16 Jul 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Zois Karargyris is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A late step up for Chumi
At 30 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The phone has started ringing about Karem Zoabi again, and this time the name on the line is ND Gorica. AEK are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market16 Jul 2029
Diogo Nascimento wants to know where this is going
“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 dugout16 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aboubakary Koita, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Jul 2029
129 days out for Diogo Nascimento after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Jul 2029
“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.
Market9 Jul 2029
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Radnik Surdulica had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A falling-out at AEK
Gaëtan Laborde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Charalampos Lykogiannis commits to AEK for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filipe Relvas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market9 Jul 2029
AEK may not be able to give Jan Hurtado what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jan Hurtado wants continental football; whether AEK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market9 Jul 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
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 Thomas Strakosha is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jun 2029
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.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
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.
Market18 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A move Karem Zoabi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Karem Zoabi is living that version at AEK, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Filipe Relvas 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
AEK sign Karem Zoabi with one eye on the future
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Karem Zoabi has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aboubakary Koita, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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 Harold Moukoudi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Apr 2029
AEK refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 62 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.
Market30 Apr 2029
James Penrice has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filipe Relvas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kaan Kairinen, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Apr 2029
Luka Jović breaks a bone — 35 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match2 Apr 2029
AEK refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 62 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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for James Penrice
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. James Penrice will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Oleksandr Zubkov 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 Apr 2029
9 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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sverrir Ingi Ingason, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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 Harold Moukoudi is on it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Chumi 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 Chumi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Mar 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chornomorets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AEK may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A falling-out at AEK
Gaëtan Laborde and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“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; AEK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Mar 2029
The enquiry everybody at AEK was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Oleksandr Zubkov 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 dugout12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stav Toriel, and the manager let it.
Market12 Mar 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEK, another week without a signature from Harold Moukoudi.
Loan watch12 Mar 2029
“I did not go to Dinamo Tbilisi to sit and watch. I want to come back to AEK and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 36 matches say the rest.
In brief
-
The dugout
Lovro Majer gets picked when it counts
-
The dugout
Răzvan Marin knocks on the manager’s door
-
Boardroom
AEK keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Match30 Dec 2028
AEK make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now AEK have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Lovro Majer 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 AEK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Nascimento was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Dec 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Luka Jović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AEK.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
One of those days for Luka Jović
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.73, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match30 Dec 2028
The goal that put Panetolikos ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when AEK equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad4 Sep 2028
The knee: Lazaros Rota out for 16 days
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Sep 2028
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 ratings4 Sep 2028
A brace, and Luka Jović takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luka Jović provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad4 Sep 2028
14 seasons and 403 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
AEK close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 18 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Filipe Relvas commits to AEK for another 4 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Tempers go at AEK
Gaëtan Laborde 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Răzvan Marin and AEK agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at AEK
Lovro Majer 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.
Squad8 May 2028
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zubkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 May 2028
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.
The dugout8 May 2028
Clayton 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 AEK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kerim Mrabti, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
Market10 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aboubakary Koita will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEK the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Tempers go at AEK
Lovro Majer 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A row about effort at AEK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Zubkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
No place for Cafú in the new shape
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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Kerim Mrabti
“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 dugout10 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitris Kaloskamis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Mark Gliha has been promised minutes
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 Mark Gliha has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Dec 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Kifisia, and it could have been more.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.11, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at AEK
Lovro Majer 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.
Market6 Dec 2027
Kervin Arriaga wants to know where this is going
“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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Luka Jović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.92. 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at AEK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charalampos Lykogiannis 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 ratings6 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Luka Jović
“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.
Loan watch6 Dec 2027
14 appearances at Dinamo Batumi and the goals keep coming. AEK are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.