The clubs have shaken hands with Pafos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Clifford Aboagye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Karlstrøm 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.
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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anorthosis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Anorthosis has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutFilip Sikosek knocks on the manager's door
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Anorthosis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Apollon for Jacob Karlstrøm 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.
He is going to Omonoia, the club has $840.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Clifford Aboagye 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 Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Aug 2028
5 new faces, and Anorthosis 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 Nicolás Andereggen is on it.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michalis Ioannou and Anorthosis agree another 4 years.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Anorthosis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Tobias Schättin is on it.
Position 4 on 45 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Jacob Karlstrøm, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
Anorthosis asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michalis Ioannou 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 Anorthosis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Omonoia Aradippou for Michalis Theodosiou 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.
“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; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michalis Ioannou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fortaleza CEIF have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Anorthosis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Anorthosis can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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 Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Anorthosis asked and Los Andes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia La Plata have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Anorthosis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Clifford Aboagye 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 Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Anorthosis have made the call to Cortulua. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everything agreed with Omonoia Aradippou, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pafos have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Anorthosis have made the call to Progreso. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sim Thandi has his answer from Anorthosis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from ETO Győr for Jacob Karlstrøm 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.
Anorthosis asked and Olympiakos Nicosia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Anorthosis is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sim Thandi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
26 appearances and 2 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.
Giorgos Pavlidis 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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anorthosis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Anorthosis have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Clifford Aboagye 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 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 Anorthosis know it.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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.
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 Tobias Schättin is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anorthosis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 4, 45 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Aidan West arrives at Anorthosis with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Anorthosis has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anorthosis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dylan Ouédraogo has his answer from Anorthosis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andreas Karamanolis and Anorthosis agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Giorgos Pavlidis 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.
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.
45 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nemanja Tošić has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anorthosis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Andreas Karamanolis has moved up it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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.
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 Nicolás Andereggen is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nemanja Tošić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
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.
Position 4 on 45 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
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.
A 1‑1 draw with Pafos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Valentinos Merkis chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Clifford Aboagye commits to Anorthosis for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
9 combined actions and 6.93. 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nicolás Andereggen has come out of that comparison in the side, and Anorthosis have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Konstantinos Sergiou has his answer from Anorthosis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Valentinos Merkis after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A brace, and Rafael Lopes takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Lopes provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Anorthosis can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
A 2‑1 win over Apollon, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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.” Valentinos Merkis, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Babacar Dione is on it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Nicolás Andereggen has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Nea Salamis will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Anorthosis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Andereggen provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Nea Salamis spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑1, Valentinos Merkis could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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
Looking aheadA test against the best for Anorthosis
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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 Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Omonoia Aradippou scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rafael Lopes, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Valentinos Merkis left the room before anybody could ask which.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kiko has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
He is going to Apollon, the club has $510.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manaus have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Jacob Karlstrøm: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Clifford Aboagye 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 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.
Anorthosis asked and Apollon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Vasilios Dedidis has gone, the accounts have $510.0K 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.
Omonoia paid $510.0K and Anorthosis took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andreas Karamanolis and Anorthosis agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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 Tobias Schättin is on it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Tobias Schättin scored in the 85th minute, Aris had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Anorthosis took the lot.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Andrija Ratković was one of the reasons people came, and $320.0K does not replace that by itself.
Add another name to the list: Apollon have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Milićević. The answer from Anorthosis has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A conversation is coming this week. Anorthosis will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Tobias Schättin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Anorthosis will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tobias Schättin has his answer from Anorthosis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Giorgos Pavlidis 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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Valentinos Merkis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Player ratingsBabacar Dione beats them one at a time
1 for Nemanja Tošić, marked 7.75, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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. Nicolás Andereggen wants continental football; whether Anorthosis can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Juraj Frigan is 18, and Anorthosis have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Valentinos Merkis, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Anorthosis told Vasilios Dedidis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutTobias Schättin has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Anorthosis know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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.
Half the programme played, position 7, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Valentinos Merkis to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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 Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Valentinos Merkis on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Akritas Chlorakas had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Anorthosis did not stop to explain themselves.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Anorthosis 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.
Nea Salamis next, and one man in the Anorthosis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Anorthosis would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dylan Ouédraogo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A side in position 14 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Valentinos Merkis left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Clifford Aboagye is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Position 3, 13 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Valentinos Merkis could afford to be generous.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Anorthosis can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
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 Tobias Schättin is on it.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Anorthosis have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Akritas Chlorakas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
Something was said to Tamás Kiss and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dylan Ouédraogo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Anorthosis needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Nemanja Tošić has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Anorthosis that is a harder question to answer.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Petros Paschali did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 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.
8.06. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Valentinos Merkis after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kiko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
7.80, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Clifford Aboagye 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. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolás Andereggen. 2‑0 against Olympiakos Nicosia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 24 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.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and David Milićević reports back to Anorthosis with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Omonoia held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Anorthosis answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Valentinos Merkis to a room that had heard them 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anorthosis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Vasilios Dedidis reports back to Anorthosis with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Anorthosis 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.
Aitor Córdoba 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.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kiko has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Panagiotis Economides is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pieros Christofi 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 Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barnsley have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tamás Kiss trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Andrija Ratković has come up in conversations Anorthosis were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Andereggen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriel Furtado 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.
Anorthosis have made the call to Barnsley. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriel Furtado 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.
13 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.
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.
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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Konstantinos Panagi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Clifford Aboagye 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Tobias Schättin is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessio da Cruz signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anorthosis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
40 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Yoëll van Nieff 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Francis Uzoho from Omonoia for $1.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Anorthosis have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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 given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Francis Uzoho
Omonoia have accepted the money. What Anorthosis do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Anorthosis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Aris, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Aitor Córdoba 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.
Anorthosis asked and Iraklis Gerolakkou said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Anorthosis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Oleksandriya, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akritas Chlorakas have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
AEL wanted more than $28.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Bergström 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Anorthosis 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Apollon is saying, and nobody at Anorthosis is enjoying the guessing.
The phone has started ringing about Marios Ilia again, and this time the name on the line is Pafos. Anorthosis are listening politely and promising nothing.
Anorthosis offered $35.0K; Omonoia 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 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 Anorthosis know it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
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 Tobias Schättin is on 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 Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Anorthosis can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
$92.0K was the most the club would pay and Akritas Chlorakas 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AE Kition have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $38.9K — a club that wants Willy Semedo enough to be asked twice.
Anorthosis have gone to Omonoia 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.
Ethnikos Achnas wanted more than $92.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Bergström was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriel Furtado 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gabriel Furtado has his answer from Anorthosis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Anorthosis will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anorthosis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Anorthosis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at APOEL, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Aris 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Anorthosis has been clear about where Yoëll van Nieff stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $450.0K — a club that wants Anastasios Pisiias enough to be asked twice.
Anorthosis have gone to Aris 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.
“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; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Yoëll van Nieff 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 offer went to Aris 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
28 games, 1 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Anorthosis now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
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 Tobias Schättin is on it.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anorthosis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Anorthosis had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Emil Bergström 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.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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 Georgios Nikolas Angelopoulos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anorthosis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Anorthosis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Anorthosis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacob Karlstrøm, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Sim Thandi 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 defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anorthosis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Ioannou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anorthosis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
12 goals in 28 games at MEAP Nisou — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Anorthosis updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Sim Thandi 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.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anorthosis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anorthosis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
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.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sim Thandi 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.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Anorthosis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Benoný Breki Andrésson has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Anorthosis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Sim Thandi 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 Anorthosis 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vasilios Dedidis signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Emil Bergström is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anorthosis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Clifford Aboagye is on it.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Anorthosis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
27 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sim Thandi 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.
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 Jacob Karlstrøm is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nemanja Tošić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sim Thandi 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Anorthosis 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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Aitor Córdoba decided nobody was going anywhere. AE Kition had no time left to answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anorthosis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Aitor Córdoba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Valentinos Merkis could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marios Ilia
Position 6 on 40 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Ioannou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anorthosis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Ypsonas had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sim Thandi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Vasilios Dedidis will call it something else in private.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Clifford Aboagye 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 first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against AE Kition; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Something was said to Babacar Dione and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Anorthosis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Anorthosis now know that too.
In brief
The dugoutAitor Córdoba is still being punished for one mistake
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Andreas Chrysostomou decided nobody was going anywhere. Ethnikos Achnas had no time left to answer.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sim Thandi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Anorthosis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Aitor Córdoba 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.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anorthosis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportes Tolima have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Rafael Lopes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Anorthosis.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Sim Thandi 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.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Anorthosis asked and Sochi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Clifford Aboagye has come out of that comparison in the side, and Anorthosis have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Valentinos Merkis kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 Anorthosis know it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Anorthosis and Pafos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
$1.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marios Ilia obliged against Paralimni. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Anorthosis.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anorthosis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and AEL spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Anorthosis can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Anorthosis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is going to APOEL, the club has $1.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
In brief
Player ratingsRoman Bezus, 36, rolls back the years — 8.00
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anorthosis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Anorthosis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Anorthosis asked and Apollon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Anorthosis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Anorthosis asked and AEL said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Anorthosis, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Anorthosis have done the hard part with Aris, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Aitor Córdoba 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.
Anorthosis asked and Pafos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Babacar Dione 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Anorthosis told Vasilios Dedidis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A 1‑0 win over Akritas Chlorakas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrija Ratković, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Babacar Dione 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Valentinos Merkis on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andreas Chrysostomou and Anorthosis agree another 3 years.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
Position 8, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
A mark of 7.60, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Valentinos Merkis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Gabriel Furtado 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Babacar Dione 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 1‑0, Valentinos Merkis could afford to be generous.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutJairo is still being punished for one mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Konstantinos Panagi: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Anorthosis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Apollon held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Anorthosis answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Clifford Aboagye 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Valentinos Merkis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Ethnikos Achnas defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Apollon in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Anorthosis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kostakis Artymatas has his answer from Anorthosis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Babacar Dione 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kostakis Artymatas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ethnikos Achnas next, and one man in the Anorthosis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Anorthosis 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.21 — 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 Marios Ilia is on it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
Omonoia Aradippou next, and one man in the Anorthosis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Gabriel Furtado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Babacar Dione 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 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Valentinos Merkis after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paralimni in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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 Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.77, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Anorthosis had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Valentinos Merkis, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Pafos.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Anorthosis 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 Marios Ilia is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marios Ilia’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Anorthosis needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anorthosis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Babacar Dione trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Anorthosis has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Aitor Córdoba 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 club 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 it has been tried.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Iraklis Gerolakkou are out and Anorthosis go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match23 Sep 2026
Marios Ilia wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Marios Ilia found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Iraklis Gerolakkou went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Basel is saying, and nobody at Anorthosis is enjoying the guessing.
“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; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis 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 Babacar Dione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.