The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadManuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadJuan Cejas has become a man the manager trusts
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Neneco 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Nikolas Koutsakos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luís Machado and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco 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.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Pagano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
In brief
SquadNeneco falls out with a teammate over standards
Boardroom112% of the income goes out in wages at Ethnikos Achnas
Nikolas Koutsakos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emmanuel Lomotey and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
In brief
SquadJuan Cejas has become a man the manager trusts
Nikolas Koutsakos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ethnikos Achnas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Besar Guxhufi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The 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.
Pablo González was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ethnikos Achnas and Pafos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pablo González and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikolas Koutsakos provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Aris will make the call about Manuel Pagano this week. Ethnikos Achnas have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Neneco 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ethnikos Achnas and Apollon in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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. Ethnikos Achnas will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nektarios Laban has his answer from Ethnikos Achnas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Della Vedova will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nikolas Koutsakos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco 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.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Juan Cejas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Marked 8.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Neneco 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Cejas signs something — a contract at Ethnikos Achnas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
Position 12 and 13 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 official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Ilić and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nikolas Koutsakos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neneco 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Manuel Pagano had Ethnikos Achnas level again within 1 minutes, and Nea Salamis never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ethnikos Achnas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Paralimni? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Ethnikos Achnas rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Ermis had no answer to any of it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Cejas. 5‑3 against Ermis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nikolas Koutsakos 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Robert Pjaca has just signed for Ethnikos Achnas, and for once the answer mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
Stelios Konstantinou is 18, and Ethnikos Achnas have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Javier Siverio provided it, and the 7.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ethnikos Achnas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Camacho provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Cejas and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Rafael Camacho on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ethnikos Achnas and Omonoia.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neneco 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.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 141 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Besar Guxhufi has his answer from Ethnikos Achnas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Della Vedova will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Neneco 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 easiest signature of my career.” Luís Machado and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The phone has started ringing about Khama Manyama again, and this time the name on the line is Sivasspor. Ethnikos Achnas are listening politely and promising nothing.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fotis Laban is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christos Laifis 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 words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Manuel Pagano 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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Neneco 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 easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Camacho and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
$2.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
He is going to Al Nasr, the club has $2.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Bahanack will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ethnikos Achnas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ethnikos Achnas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Neneco 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Richard Ofori has improved at 36, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Javier Siverio has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Lucas Flores 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.
Pablo González 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Neneco 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.
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.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick Bahanack will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Patrick Bahanack has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 28 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 phone has started ringing about Ignacio Della Vedova again, and this time the name on the line is Doxa. Ethnikos Achnas are listening politely and promising nothing.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolas Perdios will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 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.
The offer from Nea Salamis for Pieros Konstantinou 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Manuel Pagano 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Omar Bully has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from AE Kition for Ignacio Della Vedova 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.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
Add another name to the list: Nea Salamis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Pieros Konstantinou. The answer from Ethnikos Achnas has not changed — yet.
In brief
Boardroom89% of the income goes out in wages at Ethnikos Achnas
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Lucas Flores falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Market4 Jun 2029
Khama Manyama returns from a loan that gave him nothing
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 May 2029
Manuel Pagano 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.
Pablo González 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.
In brief
MarketKhama Manyama returns from a loan that gave him nothing
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gabriel Delishi has agreed terms with Nea Salamis for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad14 May 2029
Lucas Flores falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and 3 appearances in 46 say he has earned the hearing.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Della Vedova will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Ilić and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Ethnikos Achnas will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
In brief
SquadWords at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pieros Konstantinou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ethnikos Achnas, and 2 appearances in 42 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Ethnikos Achnas
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Neneco 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pieros Konstantinou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ethnikos Achnas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Flores 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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 Ethnikos Achnas 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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javier Siverio signs something — a contract at Ethnikos Achnas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Lucas Flores 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.
Pablo González 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
Marked 4.65. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 12 and 22 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas 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.” Luís Machado and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Flores 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Manuel Pagano 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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Juan Cejas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I watch every Ethnikos Achnas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kasimpasa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against AE Kition? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Ilić signs something — a contract at Ethnikos Achnas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Lucas Flores 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Juan Cejas had Ethnikos Achnas level again within 3 minutes, and Omonoia never got to play with a lead at all.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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: Juan Cejas. 2‑0 against Doxa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 13 and 15 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Manuel Pagano 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.
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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Flores is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pablo González and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Lucas Flores falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Juan Cejas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.86. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Ethnikos Achnas are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Manuel Pagano 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.
Pablo González was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Richard Ofori will want back
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Flores 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 easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Flores and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
A brace, and Juan Cejas takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Cejas provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 12 and 7 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Lucas Flores falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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 easiest signature of my career.” Christian Ilić and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Omar Bully was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
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 said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Flores is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Manuel Pagano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Luís Machado’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ethnikos Achnas.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Juan Cejas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.54. 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.
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Manuel Pagano 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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
5 new faces, and Ethnikos Achnas 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rafael Camacho has his answer from Ethnikos Achnas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Giorgos Panagi is a Ethnikos Achnas player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Flores 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ethnikos Achnas has been clear about where Georgios Nikolas Angelopoulos stands, which is more than many ever get.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Manuel Pagano had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Nea Salamis were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Loïs D'Elia has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The shirt still fits. Manuel Pagano is back at Ethnikos Achnas, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
2‑3 to Nea Salamis, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Manuel Pagano 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ignacio Della Vedova is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Neneco 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.
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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Artem Shmatko has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Shmatko is 20, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Aris will make the call about Filip Nović this week. Ethnikos Achnas have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ethnikos Achnas is running low.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ethnikos Achnas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Neneco 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 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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 easiest signature of my career.” Marios Pechlivanis and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bjarki Hauksson 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Della Vedova 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ignacio Della Vedova is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Giorgos Panagi has agreed terms with Doxa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Neneco 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Filip Nović has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
SquadWords at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
SquadLucas Flores has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
Neneco 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Omar Bully has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javier Siverio signs something — a contract at Ethnikos Achnas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gabriel Delishi is living that version at Ethnikos Achnas, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Luka Kakulia has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Ethnikos Achnas have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ethnikos Achnas can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nicolás Andereggen was one of the reasons people came, and $4.6M does not replace that by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Khama Manyama has come up in conversations Ethnikos Achnas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Neneco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ethnikos Achnas has been clear about where Nikolas Perdios stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Ethnikos Achnas will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Monteleone has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from APOEL for Nicolás Andereggen 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 official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Patrick Bahanack has his answer from Ethnikos Achnas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.