“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 The request is on a desk at Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hassan Al-Tambakti 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 Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Angelos Stafylidis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Suren Tsarukyan has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Tilev 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 Martin Hongla is on it.
Martin Hongla 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 Othmane Boussaid 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 Othmane Boussaid is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Othmane Boussaid 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 Manu García signs something — a contract at Aris Thessaloniki or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Volos NPS next, and one man in the Aris Thessaloniki dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aris Thessaloniki. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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 dugout8 Oct 2029
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 Angelos Stafylidis to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
0‑4 to OFI, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aris Thessaloniki have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Vitor Eudes 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.94, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aris Thessaloniki has to find a result from somewhere.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Othmane Boussaid 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. Panetolikos have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Pietro Ceccaroni and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anagennisi Karditsa have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Angelos Stafylidis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Aris Thessaloniki dressing room was either.
Something was said to Michalis Panagidis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Hassan Al-Tambakti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asteras have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Ivan Tilev 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.
“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 dugout10 Sep 2029
Martin Hongla is still being punished for one mistake
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.
10 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Aris Thessaloniki can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Chania for Othmane Boussaid 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $302.4K of what Aris Thessaloniki paid for Zois Karargyris is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Fábio Duarte reports back to Aris Thessaloniki with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Vitor Eudes 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.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Othmane Boussaid again, and this time the name on the line is PAOK. Aris Thessaloniki are listening politely and promising nothing.
Martin Hongla 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid 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. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Guilherme Santos has just signed for Aris Thessaloniki, and for once the answer mattered.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Ivan Tilev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Anagennisi Karditsa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid 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 Othmane Boussaid is on it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nasos Dabizas
The offer from Iraklis for Zois Karargyris was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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. Vitória have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 offer from Suduva for Othmane Boussaid 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
The deal with Fluminense is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Ivan Tilev 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.
“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; Aris Thessaloniki are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aris Thessaloniki lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kampaniakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Ilioupoli for Kieren Flavell 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Independiente is saying, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is enjoying the guessing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Othmane Boussaid 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.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Fluminense 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 words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The name of Othmane Boussaid has come up in conversations Aris Thessaloniki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer from Kifisia for Fábio Duarte 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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. Giannis Nikopolidis has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Internacional have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aris Thessaloniki have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aris Thessaloniki lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Ivan Tilev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A 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.
Aris Thessaloniki have made the call to Defensa y Justicia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aris Thessaloniki lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Botev Plovdiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The enquiry everybody at Aris Thessaloniki was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Francesco Panico 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aris Thessaloniki lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Tatran Prešov for Othmane Boussaid 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Aris Thessaloniki will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Add another name to the list: Hellas Syros have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Riyad Messaoudi. The answer from Aris Thessaloniki has not changed — yet.
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.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Independiente 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 words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kifisia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Kifisia for Fábio Duarte 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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.
Aris Thessaloniki have made the call to Volos NPS. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Aris Thessaloniki and Olympiacos have settled on $500.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jan Gorenc and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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. Levadiakos have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Suduva for Othmane Boussaid 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jan Gorenc and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid 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. Makedonikos have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Zois Karargyris has his answer from Aris Thessaloniki; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ricardinho wants continental football; whether Aris Thessaloniki can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
16 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Aris Thessaloniki now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad28 May 2029
Ivan Tilev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Michalis Voriazidis may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zois Karargyris trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aris Thessaloniki. 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; Aris Thessaloniki are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Othmane Boussaid 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 Fabiano is on 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kiko Félix has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Hassan Al-Tambakti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Ivan Tilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aris Thessaloniki told Ismaëlo Ganiou something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Manu García is on it.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aris Thessaloniki, another week without a signature from Ivan Tilev.
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 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.
Rémy Cabella 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 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 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 Fabiano has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kalamata will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Andreas Paraskeva has pre-agreed a move to Aris Thessaloniki, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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 Fabiano is on 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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Aris Thessaloniki the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fábio Duarte will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pietro Ceccaroni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Aris Thessaloniki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Aris Thessaloniki have no good answer.
Position 6 on 37 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dimitris Pinakas has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Zois Karargyris trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aris Thessaloniki. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Aris Thessaloniki have no good answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aris Thessaloniki have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ricardinho and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 4 years.
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.
Rémy Cabella 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.
Atromitos will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Liberto has pre-agreed a move to Aris Thessaloniki, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
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 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Noam Emeran has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Ivan Tilev 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.
8 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.
Something was said to Nick Perc and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki know 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.
Something was said to Brian Oliván and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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. Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Rémy Cabella 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 easiest signature of my career.” Felipe Felício and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ismaëlo Ganiou scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manu García and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Rémy Cabella 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Guilherme Santos has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Zois Karargyris 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.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Manu García was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Aris Thessaloniki and Olympiacos in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Ricardinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.70. 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.
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.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Othmane Boussaid 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.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Stefan Stojanović has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Chania said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aris Thessaloniki has been clear about where Othmane Boussaid stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Niki Volos will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Aris Thessaloniki were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Rémy Cabella 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Kostas Balomenos has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Aris Thessaloniki ran out of time with PAOK. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Ivan Tilev 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jan Gorenc has, at Aris Thessaloniki, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee is $2.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Niki Volos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aris Thessaloniki hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Aris Thessaloniki had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lanús, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Niki Volos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer from Niki Volos for Sebastián Palacios 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.
Panathinaikos paid $2.0M and Aris Thessaloniki took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Aris Thessaloniki had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mirassol, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Othmane Boussaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The deal with Asteras is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is enjoying the guessing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aris Thessaloniki have done the hard part with Mirassol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Pescara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
OFI left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 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 1‑2 Angelos Stafylidis left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Olympiacos for Hassan Al-Tambakti 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aris Thessaloniki have done the hard part with AEK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.04, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Tilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout25 Dec 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.” Angelos Stafylidis, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Rémy Cabella and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aris Thessaloniki, another week without a signature from Othmane Boussaid.
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 Othmane Boussaid is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 131 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 Ivan Tilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Half the programme played, position 9, 16 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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 Aris Thessaloniki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Voriazidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Angelos Stafylidis after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Michalis Voriazidis 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.
In brief
The dugoutManu García has become a man the manager trusts
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kostas Charoupas did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Tilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ricardinho wants continental football; whether Aris Thessaloniki can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, 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 Aris Thessaloniki 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 Ivan Tilev 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 Othmane Boussaid is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Olympiacos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Aris Thessaloniki could ask drops and the wages Fabiano can ask rise.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can tell you which week it ends in.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Angelos Stafylidis 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aris Thessaloniki has to find a result from somewhere.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Aris Thessaloniki hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Aris Thessaloniki, and 7 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Aris Thessaloniki can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aris Thessaloniki has to find a result from somewhere.
Rémy Cabella and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Ivan Tilev 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aris Thessaloniki told Pietro Ceccaroni something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aris Thessaloniki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Angelos Stafylidis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Aris Thessaloniki dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Iván Morales 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 Ivan Tilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Iván Morales trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Aris Thessaloniki. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Tilev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fábio Duarte 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Apostolos Diamantis has his answer from Aris Thessaloniki; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
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.
Iván Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Tilev 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kostas Charoupas and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 4 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Angelos Stafylidis after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aris Thessaloniki 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Rémy Cabella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aris Thessaloniki will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Voriazidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Rémy Cabella is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A brace, and Iván Morales takes the afternoon — 8.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iván Morales provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Tilev has just signed for Aris Thessaloniki, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Tasos Donis is a Aris Thessaloniki player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Iván Morales 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Georgios Tsimikas 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Aymane Jelbat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kavala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and River Plate 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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 Apostolos Diamantis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pietro Ceccaroni and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Aris Thessaloniki than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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. 76 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 Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Olympiacos, the club has $7.6M 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.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Aris Thessaloniki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Monza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 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 at Aris Thessaloniki 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. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Felipe Felício and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years.
Felipe Felício 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Othmane Boussaid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Krasnodar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki know it.
AEK paid $650.0K and Aris Thessaloniki took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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 Omar Richards is on it.
Olympiacos paid $1.9M and Aris Thessaloniki took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer went to Panionios this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Vélez said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Something was said to Martin Hongla and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aymane Jelbat is living that version at Aris Thessaloniki, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Omar Richards wants continental football; whether Aris Thessaloniki can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, 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 Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Aris Thessaloniki have made the call to Udinese. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Aris Thessaloniki are still learning each other
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Olympiacos for Fredrik Jensen 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Riyad Messaoudi has, at Aris Thessaloniki, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Lovro Majkić reports back to Aris Thessaloniki with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Aris Thessaloniki have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Olympiacos paid $2.2M and Aris Thessaloniki took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aris Thessaloniki have done the hard part with Lanús, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Migouel Alfarela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Aris Thessaloniki that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympiacos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Olympiacos for Manu García 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.
Aris Thessaloniki asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Olympiacos will make the call about Uroš Račić this week. Aris Thessaloniki have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Álvaro Zamora 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
18 appearances and 5 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.
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 Álvaro Zamora is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álvaro Zamora trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aris Thessaloniki know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
40 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Fredrik Jensen has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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 agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against AEK; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Othmane Boussaid will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fábio Duarte 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.
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 Omar Richards signs something — a contract at Aris Thessaloniki or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Aris Thessaloniki would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Hassan Al-Tambakti 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 Aris Thessaloniki 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Álvaro Zamora’s exile
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Hassan Al-Tambakti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Aris Thessaloniki would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aris Thessaloniki know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Panagidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Omar Richards wants continental football; whether Aris Thessaloniki can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aris Thessaloniki has been clear about where Migouel Alfarela stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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 Aris Thessaloniki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
40 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Aris Thessaloniki have no good answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Kerkez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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 Omar Richards is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar Richards signs something — a contract at Aris Thessaloniki or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Migouel Alfarela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Manu García 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 Aris Thessaloniki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Othmane Boussaid 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hassan Al-Tambakti and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 4 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aris Thessaloniki told Loren Morón something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kieren Flavell is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Lovro Majkić has come up in conversations Aris Thessaloniki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fábio Duarte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lovro Majkić has his answer from Aris Thessaloniki; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Position 5, 40 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.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Miloš Jović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Kerkez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Miloš Jović 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Angelos Stafylidis on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Uroš Račić has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Levadiakos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Aris Thessaloniki will try not to make too much of it.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Aris Thessaloniki are still learning each other
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutMiloš Jović has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pietro Ceccaroni 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Tiago Silva has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Aris Thessaloniki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
At 20 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Aris Thessaloniki. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Aris Thessaloniki ran out of time with Iraklis. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Atromitos made Aris Thessaloniki work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Uroš Račić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aris Thessaloniki.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Angelos Stafylidis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutManu García has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aris Thessaloniki will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Loren Morón decided nobody was going anywhere. Kalamata had no time left to answer.
The deal that would have taken Loren Morón to Iraklis has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Aris Thessaloniki with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“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 Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki heard it as anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aris Thessaloniki can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Arab Contractors for Noah Fadiga 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.
The name of Loren Morón has come up in conversations Aris Thessaloniki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Aris Thessaloniki have gone to Iraklis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Aris Thessaloniki had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Defensa y Justicia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Iraklis this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kieren Flavell is living that version at Aris Thessaloniki, and it tends to show in the first month.
OFI paid $94.0K and Aris Thessaloniki took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Apostolos Diamantis has, at Aris Thessaloniki, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aris Thessaloniki have done the hard part with Defensa y Justicia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Aris Thessaloniki offered $160.0K; Iraklis 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pietro Ceccaroni and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 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 Aris Thessaloniki know it.
The name of Marko Kerkez has come up in conversations Aris Thessaloniki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I did not go to HNK Rijeka to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aris Thessaloniki and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dudu has his answer from Aris Thessaloniki; 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.
“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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
The goal that put Kifisia ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Aris Thessaloniki equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Position 10, 13 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aris Thessaloniki will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Kerkez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Miloš Jović 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Levadiakos had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aris Thessaloniki told Uroš Račić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.