From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Apollon people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market18 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Ali Youssef again, and this time the name on the line is Zalgiris. Apollon are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiakos Nicosia have kept their man, and Apollon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match16 Jan 2027
Apollon come up short against AEL
AEL left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout18 Jan 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ioannis Alexandrou to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market18 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Konstantinos Stylianou has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Apollon.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
When it matters, Alen Ožbolt plays
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
Chastening afternoon for Apollon
A 2‑6 beating by APOEL was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Doxa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Apollon is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Morgan Brown had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Apollon had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Londrina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match9 Jan 2027
Lazar Marković among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Lazar Marković on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Apollon and APOEL.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Konstantinos Stylianou has come up in conversations Apollon were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 1 saves does not settle it either way.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 Apollon have had the benefit of it.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Ivan Ljubić has come up in conversations Apollon were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Apollon has been clear about where Praxitelis Vouros stands, which is more than many ever get.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Apollon have made the call to Londrina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Astana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Dec 2026
Morgan Brown has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Apollon they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Morgan Brown has agreed terms with Omonoia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 145% of everything Apollon earn
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.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Olympiakos Nicosia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Joel Asoro
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.84 on the card, and the Apollon support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ioannis Alexandrou could afford to be generous.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
Omonoia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ioannis Alexandrou after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Alen Ožbolt gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Andreas Siikkis dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Donaldo Açka has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Apollon 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
The Emanuel Aiwu story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emanuel Aiwu signs something — a contract at Apollon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market21 Dec 2026
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Apollon money.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Apollon squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Akritas Chlorakas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match12 Dec 2026
The run is over for Apollon
4 matches without defeat, and then Akritas Chlorakas. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Ljubić, and the manager let it.
Match14 Dec 2026
Halfway: Apollon sit in position 4
23 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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 Ioannis Alexandrou left the room before anybody could ask which.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Apollon take on the side everybody is chasing
Omonoia arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Josef Kvída has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Apollon 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lazar Marković’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Omonoia next, and one man in the Apollon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Dec 2026
Apollon refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 23 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Apollon make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Apollon have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lazar Marković’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Apollon.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dani Escriche, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Apollon have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.85 on the card, and the Apollon support went home talking about one name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Emanuel Aiwu
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Emanuel Aiwu has come out of that comparison in the side, and Apollon have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match25 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Apollon
A 1‑0 win over Aris, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match25 Nov 2026
Gaëtan Weissbeck wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Gaëtan Weissbeck found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Aris went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match28 Nov 2026
Apollon cannot stop winning
3 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Apollon can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Apollon
Mateo Pérez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 141% of everything Apollon earn
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Pedro Marques
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Assunção. 1‑0 against Anorthosis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Apollon
Emanuel Aiwu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
AE Kition made Apollon work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Gustavo Assunção at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Apollon.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Willian Lira gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ioannis Alexandrou could afford to be generous.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Chances created: 10. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pedro Marques has his answer from Apollon; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Mateo Pérez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Pedro Marques knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedro Marques trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Emanuel Aiwu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Apollon say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Ali Youssef a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Apollon. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joel Asoro, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Philipp Kühn in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Apollon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 7.55. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Apollon man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Gustavo Assunção was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Ethnikos Achnas came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market9 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lazar Marković signs something — a contract at Apollon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Apollon may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 141% of everything Apollon earn
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Omonoia Aradippou, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The award goes to Gustavo Assunção, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gustavo Assunção is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ioannis Alexandrou could afford to be generous.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.92, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
67 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match24 Oct 2026
Paralimni made Apollon work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Apollon. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Gustavo Assunção at his very best
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Apollon.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Apollon
9 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Ioannis Alexandrou could afford to be generous.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mateo Pérez 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Pafos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ioannis Alexandrou to a room that had heard them before.
Market19 Oct 2026
Josef Kvída is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Apollon has been clear about where Josef Kvída stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Andreas Siikkis
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paralimni in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market19 Oct 2026
The name of Emanuel Aiwu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Apollon say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
The one thing Pedro Marques could not do
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mateo Pérez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Apollon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Oct 2026
No place for Ali Youssef in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ali Youssef has his answer from Apollon; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Ljubić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lazar Marković signs something — a contract at Apollon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Donaldo Açka gets picked when it counts
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 Donaldo Açka is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Morgan Brown knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Morgan Brown trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Josef Kvída’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Apollon needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Joel Asoro has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Joel Asoro has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Apollon the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.99, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Apollon
Emanuel Aiwu 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Apollon know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
166% of the income goes out in wages at Apollon
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Apollon get the job done against AEL
A 2‑0 win over AEL, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Ali Youssef
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ioannis Alexandrou could afford to be generous.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
The chances came and went for Pedro Marques
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Apollon
A 5‑0 win over Agia Napa, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Brandon Thomas takes the afternoon — 8.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brandon Thomas provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Donaldo Açka takes the afternoon — 8.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Donaldo Açka provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Apollon can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match26 Sep 2026
APOEL left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match23 Sep 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Agia Napa tried to reorganise, Apollon did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Dani Escriche
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Apollon are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ioannis Alexandrou to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
Apollon come up short against Aris
Aris left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emanuel Aiwu, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Philipp Kühn 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
APOEL next, and one man in the Apollon dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market21 Sep 2026
The name of Emanuel Aiwu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Apollon say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ivan Ljubić has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ivan Ljubić has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ioannis Alexandrou could afford to be generous.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Konstantinos Balogiannis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Praxitelis Vouros
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Market14 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lazar Marković signs something — a contract at Apollon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Connor Goldson’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Apollon needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Apollon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 15 in, 4 out at Apollon
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Apollon say no — this time
The offer from Omonoia for Konstantinos Stylianou 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mateo Pérez and Apollon agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alen Ožbolt is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alen Ožbolt 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Apollon than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Apollon say no — this time
The offer from Sanjoanense for Pedro Marques 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ethnikos Achnas have kept their man, and Apollon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Apollon
9 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Pedro Marques
7.62, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Apollon had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ioannis Alexandrou was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Apollon dressing room was either.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
Apollon say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Apollon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ethnikos Achnas have kept their man, and Apollon go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Evangelos Andreou’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Apollon needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Emanuel Aiwu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Apollon say nothing, which says plenty.
Market24 Aug 2026
The talk of Pedro Marques going back to Sanjoanense has reached the stage where nobody remembers who started it. That is usually the stage where somebody makes a phone call.
Market24 Aug 2026
Mateo Pérez runs his contract down
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Apollon money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Digenis Morfou waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Apollon is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Apollon asked and Slovacko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Apollon, another week without a signature from Willian Lira.
Market17 Aug 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lazar Marković signs something — a contract at Apollon or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mateo Pérez is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Mateo Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Apollon the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market10 Aug 2026
Hércules come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Apollon did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mateo Pérez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Apollon
Willian Lira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: PAEEK have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zacharias Adoni. The answer from Apollon has not changed — yet.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dimitris Papoulis 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan move for Alan Marinelli is in the works
Apollon have made the call to Slovacko. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Emanuel Aiwu knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Apollon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lazar Marković commits to Apollon for another 3 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Apollon can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Apollon
Mateo Pérez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Connor Goldson’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Garry Rodrigues stands down from international duty
“62 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 35 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Apollon.