Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atromitos 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.
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 Giorgos Tzovaras is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atromitos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Răzvan Marin 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 20 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Atromitos 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 dugout23 Apr 2029
Makana Baku is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atromitos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Atromitos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jhan Rengifo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atromitos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Atromitos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atromitos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea 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 André Geraldes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Makana Baku'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.
In brief
The dugoutAndré Geraldes asks for a word with the manager
The terracesThe stands have heard the Juan-José Perea talk too
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
Juan-José Perea 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 Hörður Magnússon 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 Atromitos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Atromitos 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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atromitos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Atromitos have no good answer.
In brief
BoardroomThe Atromitos production line keeps running
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Atromitos
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Atromitos is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Atromitos 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.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Juan-José Perea 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hörður Magnússon 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 watch every Atromitos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zob Ahan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Atromitos 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 dugout26 Feb 2029
Makana Baku is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 7 on 31 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jere Uronen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atromitos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Răzvan Marin 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-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout19 Feb 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 Petros Karelis to a room that had heard them before.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Atromitos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at OFI, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atromitos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Jhan Rengifo damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have shaken hands with OFI; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atromitos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
118 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jere Uronen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atromitos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Răzvan Marin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sasa Popovič is living that version at Atromitos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Atromitos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Steven Zuber
Jhan Rengifo damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
“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 Atromitos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OFI keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atromitos have done the hard part with AS Roma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea 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. AEK have kept their man, and Atromitos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
$210.0K settles it between the clubs for Bryan Róchez
OFI have accepted the money. What Atromitos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
“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 Atromitos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan-José Perea provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Răzvan Marin 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-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutAndré Geraldes asks for a word with the manager
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.
The terraces18 Dec 2028
A cup hiding at PAOK leaves Atromitos explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atromitos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7.74, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atromitos and AEK in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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 mood at Atromitos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Răzvan Marin. 2‑0 against Kifisia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Răzvan Marin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hörður Magnússon and Atromitos agree another 2 years.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Răzvan Marin 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atromitos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 8, 14 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
Nobody left the Atromitos dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Petros Karelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
The mood at Atromitos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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 Juan-José Perea is on it.
Răzvan Marin 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-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Atromitos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Petros Karelis could afford to be generous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atromitos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
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 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.
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 Kosta Aleksić is on it.
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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Juan-José Perea was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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 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.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea 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.” Petros Karelis after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atromitos has been clear about where Steven Zuber stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Răzvan Marin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 9.78 — 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jere Uronen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atromitos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 93, against Panetolikos, 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.
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.
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.
1 for Samuel Moutoussamy, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hörður Magnússon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Atromitos will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Petros Karelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kifisia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Petros Karelis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Juan-José Perea had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Aris Thessaloniki were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zack Stritch has, at Atromitos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atromitos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The mood at Atromitos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gonçalo Cadete is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Atromitos offered $290.0K; Levadiakos 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.
At 32 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atromitos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at OFI is saying, and nobody at Atromitos is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Levadiakos 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.
Răzvan Marin 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Răzvan Marin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atromitos told Sotiris Tsiloulis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Răzvan Marin 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 35 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea 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 Juan-José Perea is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atromitos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Haugesund for Anastasios Pisiias 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 33 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.
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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Anastasios Pisiias had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OFI keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Răzvan Marin 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 31 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.
Nobody at Atromitos 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 Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Theodoros Bakasetas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kostas Lampropoulos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Efthymios Mandalos 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lefteris Choutesiotis and Atromitos agree another 2 years.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Atromitos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atromitos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Plaza Colonia for Anastasios Pisiias 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 easiest signature of my career.” Lefteris Lyratzis and Atromitos agree another 4 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
5 new faces, and Atromitos 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.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Eric Ramírez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aris Thessaloniki waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atromitos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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 name of Anastasios Pisiias has come up in conversations Atromitos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Atromitos 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: PAOK will make the call about Eric Ramírez this week. Atromitos have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” João Afonso has his answer from Atromitos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Atromitos will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Eric Ramírez talk too
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atromitos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Atromitos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Atromitos asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Đorđević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and Atromitos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The loan was meant to give him football. 4 games and 0 goals later he is back at Atromitos no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Atromitos will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ruslan Pichienko is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nobody at Atromitos 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. 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.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hörður Magnússon trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Atromitos would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces1 May 2028
The mood at Atromitos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Nobody at Atromitos 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.
5 shut-outs in 22 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Anastasios Pisiias has been having a lot of them.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atromitos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Atromitos the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Nobody at Atromitos 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 dugoutRăzvan Marin knocks on the manager's door
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos 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 Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 Atromitos 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.” Atromitos 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 Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vasilis Athanasiou and Atromitos agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Đorđević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atromitos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Răzvan Marin 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Atromitos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Atromitos 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.
Luka Đorđević has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutJere Uronen asks for a word with the manager
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 terraces6 Mar 2028
The mood at Atromitos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Atromitos no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Atromitos than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Răzvan Marin 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 Sotiris Tsiloulis is on it.
5 shut-outs in 22 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Anastasios Pisiias has been having a lot of them.
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 Roderick Miranda has written the date down.
Somebody from AEK has seen every one of Juan-José Perea’s last few games. Nobody travels that far that often out of curiosity, and everybody at Atromitos knows it.
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.
Position 12 on 18 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Nobody left the Atromitos dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Petros Karelis to a room that had heard them before.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.32, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Petros Karelis to a room that had heard them before.
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 Olympiacos.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Isloch for Miguel Vaz was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Beno Selan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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 did not go to Audax Italiano to sit and watch. I want to come back to Atromitos and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 28 matches say the rest.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Petros Karelis, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Răzvan Marin 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petros Karelis after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Nobody at Atromitos 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Millonarios moved on, Juan-José Perea reports back to Atromitos, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yohann Campanini has just signed for Atromitos, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea 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. OFI have kept their man, and Atromitos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atromitos 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 Atromitos, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Christos Kryparakos has, at Atromitos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 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 Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Juan-José Perea has come up in conversations Atromitos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Peter Michorl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Atromitos asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.89 beside his name.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Atromitos and Panetolikos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Eric Ramírez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petros Karelis after 3‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Răzvan Marin 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.
AEK left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
Minute 92, against Panathinaikos, 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.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kifisia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
1 for Charis Tsingaras, marked 7.86, 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Michorl 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.
10 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atromitos, and 5 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jere Uronen has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Petros Karelis was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Atromitos dressing room was either.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Atromitos and Levadiakos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan-José Perea 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 Atromitos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Michorl 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Petros Karelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atromitos can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Atromitos will try not to make too much of it.
“I watch every Atromitos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Audax Italiano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petros Karelis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ruslan Pichienko has come out of that comparison in the side, and Atromitos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
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.” Petros Karelis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Panserraikos next, and one man in the Atromitos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Răzvan Marin 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. AEL Larisa had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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.
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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Beno Selan will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Atromitos escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos 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 Peter Michorl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Atromitos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Audax Italiano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 16 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.63, 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.
Răzvan Marin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
Răzvan Marin 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gonçalo Dias is living that version at Atromitos, and it tends to show in the first month.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Charis Tsingaras’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atromitos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Răzvan Marin 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 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.
The shirt still fits. Vasilis Athanasiou is back at Atromitos, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Michorl 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 watch every Atromitos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PAOK runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Petros Karelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutGiannis Satsias has become a man the manager trusts
$940.0K was the most the club would pay and AEL Larisa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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 Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.68. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan-José Perea 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atromitos 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 Atromitos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ezequiel Orbe is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 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.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ruslan Pichienko is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Atromitos
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sotirios Mavropanos has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Georgios Tachtsidis 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aris Thessaloniki waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atromitos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atromitos 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 Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Răzvan Marin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Atromitos 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atromitos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Luka Đorđević has, at Atromitos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atromitos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 32 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cortulua have kept their man, and Atromitos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Aris Thessaloniki keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The name of Anastasios Pisiias has come up in conversations Atromitos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Michorl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hörður Magnússon and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Răzvan Marin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santos have kept their man, and Atromitos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Serginho has moved up it.
Nobody at Atromitos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Corinthians is saying, and nobody at Atromitos is enjoying the guessing.
Răzvan Marin 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.
Atromitos asked and Astra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Simos Mitoglou is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atromitos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Atromitos, 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 Atromitos 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 Peter Michorl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Atromitos asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atromitos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Lefteris Choutesiotis has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutCláudio Silva knocks on the manager's door
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is saying, and nobody at Atromitos is enjoying the guessing.
Hörður Magnússon 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Răzvan Marin 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.
Atromitos asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Atromitos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atromitos can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anastasios Pisiias is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Răzvan Marin 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.
AEL Larisa paid $330.0K and Atromitos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Atromitos asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The name of Panagiotis Tsantilas has come up in conversations Atromitos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Juan-José Perea 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.
OFI wanted more than $42.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Atromitos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Michorl is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simos Mitoglou 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 Steven Zuber has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atromitos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atromitos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$1.2M settles it between the clubs for Álvaro Zamora
Aris Thessaloniki have accepted the money. What Atromitos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thanasis Karamanis is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Hörður Magnússon was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Atromitos offered $250.0K; Kifisia 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 words a physio says slowly. 28 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atromitos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Atromitos and Panetolikos have settled on $140.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Atromitos offered $790.0K; Panathinaikos 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.
Peter Michorl 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.
Levadiakos will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jesús Araujo has pre-agreed a move to Atromitos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
$790.0K on the table at Panathinaikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Juan-José Perea 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 offer went to Kifisia 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.
Atromitos 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Panagiotis Tsantilas commits to Atromitos for another 4 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Peter Michorl 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.
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.