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 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 Jacob Karlstrøm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andreas Christofi and Anorthosis agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Chrysostomou signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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 one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 16 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
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.
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.
60 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
Novak Petrušić 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Córdoba 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.
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.
Loan watch14 May 2029
Francis Uzoho’s loan is measured in nothing happening
8 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Olympiakos Nicosia. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aitor Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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.
“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 Aitor Córdoba 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 Aitor Córdoba is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Chrysostomou signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Belizán knocks on the manager’s door
Andreas Chrysostomou 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 Aitor Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Apr 2029
10 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 Tobias Schättin 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.
“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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Anorthosis, another week without a signature from Marcílio.
“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.
60 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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 Aitor Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 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.
8 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Francis Uzoho has been having a lot of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aitor Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It 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.
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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Aitor Córdoba 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.
“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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Chrysostomou signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Anorthosis, another week without a signature from Dachi Tsnobiladze.
Novak Petrušić 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 Aitor Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Anorthosis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad26 Mar 2029
16 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 Tobias Schättin 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Oliveira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rodney Kroeze has, at Anorthosis, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aitor Córdoba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
Loan watch19 Mar 2029
Francis Uzoho’s loan is measured in nothing happening
8 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Olympiakos Nicosia. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Akanni Lawal is living that version at Anorthosis, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 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.
18 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacob Karlstrøm and Anorthosis agree another 2 years.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nemanja Tošić. 3‑2 against AE Kition, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Alessio da Cruz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Anorthosis.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Jacob Karlstrøm's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Babacar Dione will call it something else in private.
“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.
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 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. 9 actions, 7.99, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
10 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.
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.
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. Nueva Chicago have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 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.
Clifford Aboagye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andreas Chrysostomou. 2‑1 against Akritas Chlorakas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Joseph Kemin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“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.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Anorthosis asked and Ferroviário said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentinos Merkis after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Victão
Andreas Chrysostomou 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andreas Chrysostomou. 3‑2 against Ypsonas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Ypsonas spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
8.07. 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 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.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and Anorthosis are still learning each other
44 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andreas Christofi has, at Anorthosis, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anorthosis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Jacob Karlstrøm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Anorthosis have done the hard part with Barau, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Anorthosis can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asteras have kept their man, and Anorthosis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
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.
APOEL next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jaider Cortes is in the works
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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
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.
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.
9 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.
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.
“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.
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 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.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andreas Chrysostomou. 2‑0 against Pafos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Anorthosis will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking 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.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andreas Chrysostomou provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals in one match, Andreas Chrysostomou on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Anorthosis and Omonia 29M.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Novak Petrušić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Pafos next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
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.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Aitor Córdoba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Dec 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.
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. 11 actions, 6.90, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andreas Artemiou has just signed for Anorthosis, and for once the answer mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Andreas Chrysostomou’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Anorthosis.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
104% of the income goes out in wages at Anorthosis
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.
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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Antonio Perić has, at Anorthosis, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Clifford Aboagye signs something — a contract at Anorthosis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
4 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.
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 Jacob Karlstrøm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Anorthosis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Karlstrøm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
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.
“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.
Squad23 Oct 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.
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.
Something was said to Andreas Karamanolis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Valentinos Merkis could afford to be generous.
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.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Fran Kasumović has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Anorthosis have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Valentinos Merkis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Anorthosis dressing room was either.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.08, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Karlstrøm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacob Karlstrøm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolás Andereggen. 2‑1 against Omonoia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Novak Petrušić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout18 Sep 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Anorthosis told Michalis Ioannou something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutAitor Córdoba has become a man the manager trusts
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.
7 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.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Filip Sikosek’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Anorthosis opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Tobias Schättin stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
“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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nikolay Dergach is living that version at Anorthosis, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessio da Cruz and Anorthosis agree another 3 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Anorthosis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobias Schättin 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 offered $53.0K; Apollon 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marios Christofi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Grigoris Economides has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antonis Kastanos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.