24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Iraklis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panargiakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Iraklis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panionios keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis 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 Brian Oliván was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Iraklis is enjoying the guessing.
$4.6M was the most the club would pay and Rodina 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Panionios; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iraklis can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Iraklis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.9M — a club that wants German Onugkha enough to be asked twice.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alvin has just signed for Iraklis, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
SquadBrian Oliván falls out with a teammate over standards
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Iraklis have gone to PAOK with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Atromitos did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.8M for Charis Tsingaras, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Nair Tiknizyan 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.
Panetolikos paid $560.0K and Iraklis took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Charis Tsingaras from Atromitos for $1.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ollie O'Neill, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panagiotis Panagiotidis 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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panetolikos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Iraklis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Iraklis 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Konstantinos Manolas 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 Tzavellas 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 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.
Iraklis had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Partizan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Panagiotis Panagiotidis and Iraklis agree another 4 years.
Andrés Vombergar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Iraklis, another week without a signature from Ollie O'Neill.
Iraklis have made the call to Olympiacos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Iraklis lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Iraklis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Iraklis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Partizan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Iraklis is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Stephen Hammond 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Iraklis training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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. Iraklis have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He is going to Olympiacos, the club has $1.5M 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.
The deal with Aris Thessaloniki is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Iraklis asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ollie O'Neill 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. 82 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Iraklis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Marco Krainz to Panathinaikos has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Iraklis with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PAOK 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 Iraklis can pretend not to have heard.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Iraklis asked and Levadiakos 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 Rodrigo Erramuspe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis 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 Iraklis can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Iraklis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Iraklis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giorgos Manalis 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.
Nobody at Iraklis 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. 97 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.
39 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Erramuspe 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 Javi Manquillo is on it.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis 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. Iraklis will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Iraklis dressing room in a hurry
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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.
Nobody at Iraklis 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tasos Donis signs something — a contract at Iraklis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nick Scharkowski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Stefanos Souloukos has written the date down.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 129 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
39 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis 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.
Something was said to Javi Manquillo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Javi Manquillo is on it.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ollie O'Neill 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 Panagiotis Panagiotidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marco Krainz signs something — a contract at Iraklis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Iraklis lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Erramuspe 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 Iraklis 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 Iraklis 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.
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 Panagiotis Kynigopoulos has written the date down.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
39 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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; Iraklis are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Soufiane Chakla 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.
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.
Nobody at Iraklis 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Róber Pier signs something — a contract at Iraklis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with André Moreira: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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. 12 actions, 7.59, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Atromitos scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panagiotis Panagiotidis 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 Iraklis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Iraklis would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 Panagiotis Kynigopoulos is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Erramuspe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ollie O'Neill and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Iraklis know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 André Moreira is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Iraklis has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutNikola Dovedan asks for a word with the manager
Ollie O'Neill 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Dovedan 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Krainz signs something — a contract at Iraklis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Iraklis 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Iraklis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giorgos Karakasidis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Iraklis now know that too.
Soufiane Chakla 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 Feb 2027
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Erramuspe 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Iraklis would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 Panagiotis Kynigopoulos is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Iraklis. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Asteras moved on, Fiori Durmishaj reports back to Iraklis, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Iraklis prefer.
Stephen Hammond 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 Panagiotis Panagiotidis 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. Kristian Kushta had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iraklis 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.” Iraklis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Iraklis know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Iraklis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 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.
“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 Iraklis, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Panionios for Kristian Kushta 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.
Add another name to the list: Olympiacos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marco Krainz. The answer from Iraklis has not changed — yet.
Ollie O'Neill 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panionios waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Iraklis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from PAOK for Marco Krainz 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.
Add another name to the list: AEL Larisa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giorgos Manalis. The answer from Iraklis has not changed — yet.
The offer from PAOK for Amr Warda 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.
“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 Iraklis, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Iraklis have had the benefit of it.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
PAOK B next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Giorgos Manalis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Iraklis.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panagiotis Panagiotidis 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Fotios Tsimikas could afford to be generous.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kristian Kushta has his answer from Iraklis; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Iraklis told Vítor Meer something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Stephen Hammond 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 Panagiotis Panagiotidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fotios Tsimikas on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis 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 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Giorgos Manalis has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
7 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Iraklis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giorgos Manalis. 2‑1 against Nestos Chrysoupoli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A season average of 7.21 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Giorgos Manalis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.” Giorgos Giannoutsos and Iraklis agree another 4 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Iraklis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ollie O'Neill 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 pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Fiori Durmishaj at his very best
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 Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Erramuspe 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.
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Asteras Tripolis B next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Panagiotis Panagiotidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Asteras Tripolis B next, and one man in the Iraklis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Iraklis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Iraklis 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 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 Stefanos Souloukos has written the date down.
Giorgos Manalis 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.
Half the programme played, position 1, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Erramuspe 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Iraklis man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Kristian Kushta was the best thing in any of them.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Kavala? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and PAOK B had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Iraklis did not stop to explain themselves.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Iraklis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Iraklis, another week without a signature from Ollie O'Neill.
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.
Abdul Rahman Weiss 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Stephen Hammond 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 Panagiotis Panagiotidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Iraklis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Ollie O'Neill 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 Rodrigo Erramuspe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Amr Warda has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against PAS Giannina in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Iraklis will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Niki Volos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Iraklis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ollie O'Neill 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 pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The award goes to Amr Warda, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panagiotis Panagiotidis 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. Fiori Durmishaj provided it, and the 9.10 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 Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Iraklis 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadWords at Iraklis training over how hard people work
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.32, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The offer from Panionios for Abdul Rahman Weiss 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fotios Tsimikas on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Iraklis close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Add another name to the list: Panionios have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdul Rahman Weiss. The answer from Iraklis has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Erramuspe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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. Tasos Donis has moved up it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Krainz signs something — a contract at Iraklis or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. 12 actions, 6.60, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
A 1‑0 win over Asteras Tripolis B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Fotios Tsimikas kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iraklis can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astra have kept their man, and Iraklis go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Asteras Tripolis B next, and one man in the Iraklis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Iraklis would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Ollie O'Neill 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.
Iraklis asked and Haladas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Iraklis will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Iraklis, another week without a signature from Ollie O'Neill.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Iraklis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Erramuspe 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $770.0K has been paid because Tasos Donis is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Everything agreed with Independiente, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlético Tucumán keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iraklis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bucharest have kept their man, and Iraklis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Efthymios Tsimikas 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thanasis Manolas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Grigorios Siopis 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.
Iraklis have gone to Aris Thessaloniki with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Giorgos Manalis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Celje have kept their man, and Iraklis go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Iraklis will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Still no offer on the table, and Marco Krainz’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Iraklis 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.
Independiente have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.