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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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.
Lorenzo Pirola 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 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.
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.
“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.
Baptiste Santamaria 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 phone has started ringing about Kerim Mrabti again, and this time the name on the line is Halmstad. AEK are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $7.2M has been paid because Lorenzo Pirola is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
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.
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.
AEK and Olympiacos have settled on $7.2M. 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Derek Agyakwa has just signed for AEK, and for once the answer mattered.
The fee is $780.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Volos NPS drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Charalampos Lykogiannis 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
AEK have gone to Olympiacos with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Varga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Baptiste Santamaria 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.6M has been paid because Baptiste Santamaria is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
AEK asked and Al Ahly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Panetolikos did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.7M for Yevhenii Kucherenko, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yevhenii Kucherenko 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.
The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. OFI drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kaan Kairinen 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.
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 offer went to PAOK 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. AEK had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
AEK have gone to OFI with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
At 20 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.
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.
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.
6 goals in one match, Oleksandr Zubkov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AEK and Panserraikos.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gabriel Menezes has, at AEK, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
8.26. 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Răzvan Marin
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AEK can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lazaros Rota was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Zini had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petros Galanopoulos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. AEK will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charalampos Lykogiannis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thomas Strakosha wants continental football; whether AEK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Charalampos Lykogiannis 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Lazaros Rota 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.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon AEK had all but put away. Volos NPS will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aris Thessaloniki runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutUroš Račić is still paying for one afternoon at AEK
Dereck Kutesa had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Aris Thessaloniki were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga 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.
5 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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Barnabás Varga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 7 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Evangelos Karelis 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.
“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 AEK know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Charalampos Lykogiannis 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AEK can tell you which week it ends in.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anastasios Stafylidis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the AEK dressing room was either.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lazaros Rota 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.
16 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 dugout19 Oct 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 Anastasios Stafylidis to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Charalampos Lykogiannis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AEK needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Filipe Relvas signs something — a contract at AEK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Charalampos Lykogiannis 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marios Balamotis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
With 7 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.
“I watch every AEK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ND Gorica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout12 Oct 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 Anastasios Stafylidis to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga 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.
Panathinaikos next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Barnabás Varga has come out of that comparison in the side, and AEK have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
7 goals in one match, Barnabás Varga on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AEK and Panserraikos.
Marked 9.78 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lazaros Rota 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 7‑0, Anastasios Stafylidis could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than João Mário
Lovro Majer had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Atromitos were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Lovro Majer takes the afternoon — 8.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lovro Majer provided it, and the 8.07 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Barnabás Varga 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.
13 combined actions and 6.89. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
AEK offered $2.1M; Panetolikos 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 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Robim Dâmaso has just signed for AEK, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thanasis Vlachodimos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
14 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.
“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.
AEK have gone to Panetolikos with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
AEK close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 7 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Levadiakos moved on, Stavros Pilios reports back to AEK, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Panetolikos 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.
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.
The name of Giannis Theodosoulakis has come up in conversations AEK were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Dynamo Kyiv paid $11.9M 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kerim Mrabti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Luka Jović has gone, the accounts have $11.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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.
$1.0M on the table at Panetolikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Giannis Theodosoulakis has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
31 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.
$13.3M on the table at Pandurii. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Liepaja had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Aris Thessaloniki did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.5M for Uroš Račić, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to OFI 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.
Panetolikos paid $4.9M 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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.
The offer went to Aris Thessaloniki 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.
The offer from Prykarpattia for Zois Karargyris 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.
AEK asked and Levadiakos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Lazaros Rota for 14 days
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.
“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.
In brief
SquadHarold Moukoudi falls out with a teammate over standards
380 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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.
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.
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.