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.
Manu García was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Uroš Račić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fotios Papanikolaou 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.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aris Thessaloniki is running low.
“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 The request is on a desk at Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Moustafa Moustafa has just signed for Aris Thessaloniki, and for once the answer mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Álex Pastor 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Levadiakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Asteras will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Miki Muñoz 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.
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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“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.
“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 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.
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.
The offer from Polissia for Igor Owczarek was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fredrik Jensen and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years.
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. Manu García 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and OFI waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Protsenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fredrik Jensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Álex Pastor 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.
Add another name to the list: Polissia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Igor Owczarek. The answer from Aris Thessaloniki has not changed — yet.
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 Cyriel Dessers is on 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.
“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.
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 offer from Levadiakos for Yaroslav Protsenko 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. Manu García 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.
Álex Pastor 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 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panserraikos 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 Levadiakos for Ilyas Baig 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. Manu García 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.
Panathinaikos will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kostas Galanopoulos 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emerson Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Ricardo Velho and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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.
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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ricardo Velho and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
Álex Pastor was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Manu García's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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 Cyriel Dessers is on it.
In brief
The dugoutÁlex Pastor knocks on the manager's door
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aris Thessaloniki is running low.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Álex Pastor 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 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christian Djonda has, at Aris Thessaloniki, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have 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.
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 Gonçalo Maia is on it.
19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
26 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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 words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fredrik Jensen 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
40 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álex Pastor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Gonçalo Maia is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ognjen Ugrešić signs something — a contract at Aris Thessaloniki or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know 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.
In brief
The dugoutÁlex Pastor knocks on the manager’s door
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fredrik Jensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
Something was said to Gonzalo Pastor and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Aris Thessaloniki have let the market know Guillermo Martínez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
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 Angelos Tsingaras has written the date down.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Yaroslav Protsenko may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Manu García 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ognjen Ugrešić signs something — a contract at Aris Thessaloniki or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Aris Thessaloniki lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
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 Angelos Tsingaras has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fredrik Jensen 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pavlos Donis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Apostolos Nikolaou 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andreas Diamantakos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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 Fredrik Jensen is on 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 Angelos Tsingaras has written the date down.
SquadQuestions about Gonçalo Maia on the training pitch
241Edition
The Aris Thessaloniki Post
10 Mar 2031
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad10 Mar 2031
Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Emerson Rodríguez 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gomel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Manu García was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christos Giousis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moussa Sissoko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 had been thinking. Fredrik Jensen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The phone has started ringing about Igor Owczarek again, and this time the name on the line is Gomel. Aris Thessaloniki are listening politely and promising nothing.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Meré trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 7 on 33 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 7.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Volos NPS moved on, Iason Georgakopoulos reports back to Aris Thessaloniki, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
17 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.
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.
0‑3 against Olympiacos, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Kifisia moved on, Ilyas Baig reports back to Aris Thessaloniki, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fredrik Jensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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 offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Manu García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.62 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Afonso Sousa has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
38 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.
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.
“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 had been thinking. Fredrik Jensen 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.
Álex Pastor 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Migouel Alfarela. 1‑0 against Asteras, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
45 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.
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 bid was some way short and Aris Thessaloniki did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Manu García 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Moussa Sissoko and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Volos NPS scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
52 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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Manu García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fredrik Jensen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
66 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
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.
Giannis Nikopolidis 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.
80 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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
“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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
94 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.60, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Giannis Nikopolidis 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. Manu García 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.
101 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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Giannis Nikopolidis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aris Thessaloniki told Álex Pastor something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
108 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ricardo Velho and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match2 Nov 2030
Nobody could stop scoring
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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Manu García 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.
115 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alonso Coello
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
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. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The words a physio says slowly. 136 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Manu García and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years.
Giannis Nikopolidis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Manu García 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cyriel Dessers. 1‑0 against Volos NPS, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
143 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cyriel Dessers provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Giannis Nikopolidis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 150 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leonidas Ioannidis is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
0‑3 to PAOK, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matías Martínez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Manu García 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kostas Charoupas is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Giannis Nikopolidis 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
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.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Vojvodina for Iason Georgakopoulos 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 deal that would have taken Manuel Falón to Asteras 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Giannis Nikopolidis 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.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
108 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Add another name to the list: Asteras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manuel Falón. The answer from Aris Thessaloniki has not changed — yet.
115 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Breidablik had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 name of Iason Georgakopoulos has come up in conversations Aris Thessaloniki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Hubert Gyau has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
The dugoutFredrik Jensen has become a man the manager trusts
122 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.
The offer from Neman for Matías Martínez 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 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Asteras, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Giannis Nikopolidis 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 Manu García 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.
129 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.
Position 12 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 have gone to Asteras 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.
The offer from Tijuana for Iason Georgakopoulos 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 offer went to AEL Larisa 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Igor Owczarek is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Giannis Nikopolidis 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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 name of Matías Martínez has come up in conversations Aris Thessaloniki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fredrik Jensen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some 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.
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 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.
In brief
The dugoutUroš Račić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aris Thessaloniki is running low.
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.
“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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Manu García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fredrik Jensen 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panserraikos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Aris Thessaloniki know now that the thought has arrived.
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.
“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.
Moussa Sissoko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Negrão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aris Thessaloniki have made the call to AEL Larisa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hubert Gyau and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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 Panserraikos for Panagiotis Tsintotas 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Manu García 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 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.
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.
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 Uroš Račić is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Angelos Liasos
“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 Panserraikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mamadou Gning is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panetolikos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gonçalo Dias has just signed for Aris Thessaloniki, and for once the answer mattered.
“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.
Aris Thessaloniki have gone to Panserraikos 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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gonçalo Dias and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Álex Pastor 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. Olympique de Marseille have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 12 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
$140.0K settles it between the clubs for Loren Morón
Panathinaikos have accepted the money. What Aris Thessaloniki do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christos Kamtsis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Panagiotis Tsintotas has agreed terms with PAOK for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Aris Thessaloniki can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Moussa Sissoko and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years.
Uroš Račić 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 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 asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutCyriel Dessers loses the manager who believed in him
The dugoutUroš Račić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aris Thessaloniki is running low.
“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.
Squad27 May 2030
Uroš Račić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutÁlex Pastor knocks on the manager’s door
“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 Uroš Račić 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.
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 Uroš Račić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álex Pastor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Manu García 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 12 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christos Kamtsis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Račić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ricardo Velho and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Manu García has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
In brief
The dugoutGonzalo Pastor asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García 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 Fredrik Jensen is on it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Račić 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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 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.
“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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gonzalo Pastor
Position 12 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Manu García 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 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 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.
Fredrik Jensen 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. Uroš Račić 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 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.
“I watch every Aris Thessaloniki game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Avispa Fukuoka runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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.” Yaroslav Protsenko and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 18 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yaroslav Protsenko has, at Aris Thessaloniki, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is enjoying the guessing.
“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.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Panagiotis Tsintotas reports back to Aris Thessaloniki with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Račić 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.
0‑3 to Olympiacos, 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with PAOK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 no worse way to lose a footballer. Mitchel Keulen has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Račić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
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.
“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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deal with Olympiacos 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.
“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.
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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kostas Triantafyllopoulos has agreed terms with OFI for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fredrik Jensen 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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abubakar Taheer is a Aris Thessaloniki player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Manu García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ognjen Ugrešić and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and AEL Larisa were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Račić 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.
Moussa Sissoko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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 dugout31 Dec 2029
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.” Vasileios Tsimikas kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutFredrik Jensen has become a man the manager trusts
9 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Aris Thessaloniki and OFI in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
1‑2 away to the standard of IFK Goteborg. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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 here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Fredrik Jensen's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ognjen Ugrešić provided it, and the 7.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilyas Baig will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals in one match, Ognjen Ugrešić on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Aris Thessaloniki and Panetolikos.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Račić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑2 away to the standard of FC Copenhagen. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.74, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Álex Pastor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Aris Thessaloniki know now that the thought has arrived.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
28 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Račić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 13, 10 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 dugout19 Nov 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 Vasileios Tsimikas to a room that had heard them before.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Christos Giousis provided it, and the 9.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1‑2 against Vasas. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilyas Baig will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Manu García 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 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Moussa Sissoko commits to Aris Thessaloniki for another 2 years.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vasileios Tsimikas after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
7 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Račić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Manu García will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Aris Thessaloniki escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
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.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. António Vital is living that version at Aris Thessaloniki, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
0‑1 against IFK Goteborg. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rafa Salama will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.79, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Uroš Račić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Álex Pastor 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.
“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 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Manu García 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.
Álex Pastor 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.
At 22 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.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Mamadou Gning was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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.
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.
0‑1 away to the standard of FC Copenhagen. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
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.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilyas Baig will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Račić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Aris Thessaloniki know it.
The dugout17 Sep 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 2‑3 Vasileios Tsimikas left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Rafa Salama has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vasileios Tsimikas after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is enjoying the guessing.
13 in and 19 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Manu García 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.
Moussa Sissoko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vasileios Tsimikas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.