From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Panagiotis Kyriakou had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AEL asked and Leyton Orient 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
$840.0K on the table at Lanús. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fenerbahce keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bruno Tavares arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bruno Tavares has, at AEL, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sérgio Conceição 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A season on the outside for Darío Poveda
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at AEL has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Mateo Matic question follows AEL around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mateo Matic’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kypros Neofytou had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cultural Leonesa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Godoy Cruz wanted more than $700.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and AEL go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Panagiotis Kyriakou again, and this time the name on the line is APEA Akrotiri. AEL are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Constantinos Elia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AEL will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Godoy Cruz 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luther Singh commits to AEL for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at AEL
Luther Singh 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at AEL
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sérgio Conceição was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and AEL go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Chalkanoras Idaliou have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Panagiotis Panagi. The answer from AEL has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Stevan Jovetić retires from international football
“91 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 36 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at AEL.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.