67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nacim El Hassani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kavala, another week without a signature from Yamil Silva.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kavala 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 Kavala can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgos Stamoulis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala 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 Kavala 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 Nacim El Hassani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kavala have made the call to Tristán Suárez. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutYamil Silva asks for a word with the manager
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Dimosthenous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Manu Sánchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEL Larisa have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Aris Kollaras's mistake
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kavala 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 Kavala is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panetolikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Manu Sánchez 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 Nacim El Hassani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asteras have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kavala can pretend not to have heard.
Manu Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani 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 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Uri 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 Kavala 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. 104 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 agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kavala 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 Kavala 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.
Kavala asked and Egaleo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kavala has been clear about where Christos Kountouriotis stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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 Kavala is enjoying the guessing.
Manu Sánchez 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 Nacim El Hassani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kavala can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panetolikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Dimosthenous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Manu Sánchez 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kavala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kavala can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kavala have done the hard part with Aris Thessaloniki, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alejandro Bua has, at Kavala, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nacim El Hassani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yamil Silva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Kavala have gone and got theirs early.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgos Stamoulis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala 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 Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandros Kartalis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kavala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Manu Sánchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Albert Masson is living that version at Kavala, and it tends to show in the first month.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kavala now.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Aris Kollaras's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Uri is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kavala can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Dimosthenous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Manu Sánchez 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 Kavala 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 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 at Kavala 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.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Manu Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis 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 Jakub Hruštinec is on it.
“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 Kavala will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala 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 Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani 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 Kavala 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.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Manu Sánchez 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.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Aris Kollaras is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Kavala 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.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kavala lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Manu Sánchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kavala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 words a physio says slowly. 90 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 Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kavala 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kavala, and both men came out saying it was fine.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kavala 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 Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kavala is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Kavala is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Nobody at Kavala 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
The dugoutYamil Silva knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Manu Sánchez 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 Léo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Dimosthenous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Manu Sánchez 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.
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.
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 Makis Giannikoglou is on it.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kavala know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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 Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Manu Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis 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 Kavala 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.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kavala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Manu Sánchez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kavala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Dimosthenous will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Manu Sánchez 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 Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Kavala know now that the thought has arrived.
In brief
The dugoutYamil Silva knocks on the manager’s door
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kavala 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 Kavala 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 Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Kavala know which stage they are at.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Kavala 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yamil Silva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Manu Sánchez is living that version at Kavala, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgos Stamoulis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Asteras keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Kavala 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.
Nobody at Kavala 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kavala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Kavala until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Asteras 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.
Dimitris Kaloskamis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kavala know it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“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 Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kavala have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 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 Kavala is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
Niki Volos pay $330.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis 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 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kavala people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 6 on 21 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kavala have done the hard part with AEL Larisa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Niki Volos for Markos Sifneos 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.
Dimitris Kaloskamis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almagro have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Radnik Surdulica: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thiago Romano did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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 Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kavala can tell you which week it ends in.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
0‑1 to Nestos Chrysoupoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacim El Hassani 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“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.
Nobody at Kavala 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kavala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandros Kartalis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Kavala know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kavala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Thiago Romano, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Din Sula is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 20 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kavala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Panathinaikos go through and Kavala go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dimitris Kaloskamis did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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 Din Sula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Vasileios Papagiannopoulos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Kampaniakos? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Makedonikos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Kostas Thymianis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Din Sula 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 Kavala 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.
Kampaniakos next, and one man in the Kavala dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
13 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kavala would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 Vasilis Papadopoulos has written the date down.
“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 Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kostas Thymianis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kavala will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kavala, another week without a signature from Yamil Silva.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vasileios Papagiannopoulos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thiago Romano did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Romano has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Three points for Kavala, 1‑0 the final word against Anagennisi Karditsa in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Vasileios Papagiannopoulos, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
0‑3 to Niki Volos, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Din Sula 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.
15 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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Apostolos Stikas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kavala needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Din Sula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Kavala will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Kavala had all but put away. Nestos Chrysoupoli will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It needed Nacim El Hassani to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Nestos Chrysoupoli, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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 Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dimitris Kaloskamis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kavala will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Kavala 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aris Kollaras’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kavala needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Comachi
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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 Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
0‑1 to Asteras Tripolis B, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Vasileios Papagiannopoulos left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Kavala know it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Markos Sifneos is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Kavala scored in the 109th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Din Sula is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kavala will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 7.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nacim El Hassani. 3‑1 against PAS Giannina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout21 Sep 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.” Vasileios Papagiannopoulos kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Kavala have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis 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.
100 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
PAS Giannina next, and one man in the Kavala dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kavala 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 Kavala can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kavala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Markos Sifneos reports back to Kavala with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Kostas Thymianis 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.
Kavala asked and KAA Gent said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kavala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Kavala, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kavala have done the hard part with OFI, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kavala asked and Panionios 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 name of Markos Sifneos has come up in conversations Kavala were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Kavala 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kavala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kavala have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kavala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Kavala know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kampaniakos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Kifisia for Markos Sifneos 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.
Alexandros Kartalis 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.
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. Kavala will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kavala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vasileios Torosidis 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. Michalis Georgiadis 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Milunović and Kavala agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandros Kartalis 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.
Apostolos Stikas 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.