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.
Veljko Vukojević 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 Athens Kallithea know it.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Athens Kallithea now know that too.
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 Christian Mutilva has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Fazio 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 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Camilo Cantillo signs something — a contract at Athens Kallithea or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Javi Matilla is on it.
Position 5, 28 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Athens Kallithea will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Kosmas Gezos a promise
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Athens Kallithea is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Telmo have kept their man, and Athens Kallithea go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
10 goals in 20 games at Doxa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athens Kallithea updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Athens Kallithea would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Athens Kallithea. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matías Leiva is living that version at Athens Kallithea, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nueva Chicago have kept their man, and Athens Kallithea go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athens Kallithea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Camilo Cantillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Dimitris Metaxas is still in the building
AEK arrived with $2.0M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Athens Kallithea have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Hugo Rama has gone, the accounts have $2.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Athens Kallithea can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Athens Kallithea close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Simos Papadopoulos reports back to Athens Kallithea with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Camilo Cantillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Athens Kallithea asked and Colón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Veljko Vukojević 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 Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Athens Kallithea asked and Colón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Panargiakos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexis Golfinos. The answer from Athens Kallithea has not changed — yet.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Camilo Cantillo signs something — a contract at Athens Kallithea or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Javi Matilla is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olamide Shodipo 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.
Athens Kallithea asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Juan Camilo Cantillo will call it something else in private.
“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 Athens Kallithea, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 26 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.
Athens Kallithea asked and Colón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athens Kallithea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Fazio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The offer from Aris Thessaloniki for Juan Camilo Cantillo 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Athens Kallithea had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
At 25 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olamide Shodipo 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.
Athens Kallithea asked and Gornik Zabrze said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giannis Varkas provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Veljko Vukojević, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.44
A mark of 8.44 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
6 goals in one match, Giannis Varkas on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Athens Kallithea and Panargiakos.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giannis Varkas. 4‑2 against Panargiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Antonis Ntentakis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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.
Marked 8.48 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
22 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Veljko Vukojević, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Fazio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athens Kallithea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Athens Kallithea had all but put away. Hellas Syros will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Frixos Grivas 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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it 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.
Veljko Vukojević and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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.
“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 Athens Kallithea know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonidas Georgiadis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Athens Kallithea, and both men came out saying it was fine.
1 for Hugo Rama, marked 7.80, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
1 for Dimitris Metaxas, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olamide Shodipo 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.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Hugo Rama in the middle of it, and Kalamata unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Kalamata.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kaloudis Lemonis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Athens Kallithea needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Athens Kallithea know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutJavi Matilla has become a man the manager trusts
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Minute 91, against Chania, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Antonis Ntentakis 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The 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 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.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Emmanuel Samba 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Athens Kallithea told João Oliveira something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonidas Georgiadis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Athens Kallithea dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Olympiacos B defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kosmas Gezos’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Athens Kallithea needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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: Giannis Gerolemou. 1‑0 against Panargiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Leonidas Georgiadis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Athens Kallithea lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Veljko Vukojević 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Athens Kallithea will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The 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.
Veljko Vukojević 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Athens Kallithea are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Leonidas Georgiadis to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Out, 1‑1 to Anagennisi Karditsa, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Javi Matilla, marked 7.69, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
Giannis Gerolemou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olamide Shodipo 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athens Kallithea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonidas Georgiadis was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Athens Kallithea dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Athens Kallithea know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Athens Kallithea, another week without a signature from Olamide Shodipo.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Leonidas Georgiadis to a room that had heard them before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Athens Kallithea are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Wiktor Matyjewicz 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.
Athens Kallithea close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 2 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.
The deal that would have taken Giannis Sardelis to Anagennisi Karditsa has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Athens Kallithea with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Camilo Cantillo 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.
Veljko Vukojević and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Athens Kallithea, another week without a signature from João Oliveira.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Christian Mutilva has just signed for Athens Kallithea, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Athens Kallithea can pretend not to have heard.
Athens Kallithea offered $2.1M; Defensa y Justicia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Giannis Apostolakis enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olamide Shodipo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonidas Georgiadis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Athens Kallithea are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The offer went to Defensa y Justicia 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.
Giannis Gerolemou 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 Juan Camilo Cantillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Athens Kallithea asked and Temperley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Athens Kallithea will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kaloudis Lemonis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Athens Kallithea needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athens Kallithea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mariano Fazio falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad17 Aug 2026
12 new faces, and Athens Kallithea are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Athens Kallithea are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Athens Kallithea have gone to AEK 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.
Giannis Gerolemou 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.
Athens Kallithea asked and Olimpija Ljubljana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Panagiotis Torosidis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Athens Kallithea have gone to Panetolikos 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 easiest signature of my career.” Juan Camilo Cantillo and Athens Kallithea agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Camilo Cantillo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Athens Kallithea know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.