From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and OFI waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kavala is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match8 Jan 2028
10 matches without a win for Kavala
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Kavala are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Jan 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Schlishting will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Kavala had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Asteras, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Luis Schlishting has agreed terms with AEL Larisa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jan 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Match1 Jan 2028
9 matches without a win for Kavala
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Kavala are no longer polite ones.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kavala have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match1 Jan 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Kavala
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market3 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Johan Rodallega will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kavala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Dec 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Match27 Dec 2027
Kavala are in real trouble now
Position 9, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
Market27 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A one-man rearguard from Manuel Baldé
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
Kavala are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match25 Dec 2027
3 matches without a goal for Kavala
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Kavala leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match18 Dec 2027
Makedonikos left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Konstantinos Galanopoulos to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Shots: 18. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Dec 2027
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manuel Baldé, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead13 Dec 2027
Kavala face Makedonikos in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Market13 Dec 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Javi Zarzo'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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Nov 2027
Kavala out of the cup
Olympiacos ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market6 Dec 2027
“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 terraces6 Dec 2027
Kavala are taken apart by Olympiacos — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Match4 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for Kavala
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Manuel Baldé has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match4 Dec 2027
Kampaniakos left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Viudez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Viudez, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
Pavlos Pelkas damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Match29 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Kavala
Position 8 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market29 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match27 Nov 2027
3 matches without a goal for Kavala
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
182% of the income goes out in wages at Kavala
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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Asteras left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad29 Nov 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavlos Pelkas
27 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Iván Torregrosa
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Bilal Mazhar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Kavala take on the side everybody is chasing
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Market
Javi Zarzo linked with a move away
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The dugout
Issa Sall gets picked when it counts
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Squad
Pablo Viudez wants to know why he earns less
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
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.
Squad15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Giorgos Kyriopoulos is on it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noa Ebane Caro, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
A one-man rearguard from Manuel Baldé
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Exequiel Márquez and Kavala agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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 dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Jakub Hruštinec
“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.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
Belts tighten at Kavala
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 dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kavala dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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 Nov 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
142% of the income goes out in wages at Kavala
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giorgos Kyriopoulos 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Marked 7.20. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Markos Sifneos knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Markos Sifneos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Oct 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Markos Sifneos, and the manager let it.
Match23 Oct 2027
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Markos Sifneos in the middle of it, and PAS Giannina unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad25 Oct 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad25 Oct 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Kavala man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Yusri El Kandoussi was the best thing in any of them.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Kavala will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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 Oct 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match16 Oct 2027
0‑2 to Niki Volos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 dugout18 Oct 2027
Manuel Baldé asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead18 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
The numbers do not look good at Kavala
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Marshall Burke
“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.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kavala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Antonis Trimmatis keeps the shirt for now, at Kavala's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Sep 2027
Kavala through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Atromitos, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Antonis Trimmatis 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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Wages swallow 144% of the Kavala income
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 terraces4 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giorgos Kyriopoulos 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Makedonikos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Oct 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Sep 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for Kavala
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Nestos Chrysoupoli kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Kavala will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Bilal Mazhar takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bilal Mazhar provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
Kavala supporters have found a favourite in Bilal Mazhar
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bilal Mazhar 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Javi Zarzo beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
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.
Match18 Sep 2027
Kampaniakos made Kavala work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Pablo Viudez at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kavala.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Jack Aitchison knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jack Aitchison trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2027
Nowhere to hide for Kavala
0‑3 against Asteras, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Kavala had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AEK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad13 Sep 2027
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Christian Mutilva, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The numbers do not look good at Kavala
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.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Doors closed at Kavala
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 18 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Kavala told to sell
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Iván Torregrosa arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iván Torregrosa has, at Kavala, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Kavala asked and OFI 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Manuel Baldé
“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.
Market6 Sep 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 90% of everything Kavala earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Levadiakos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Kavala offered $86.0K; Ilioupoli said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Kavala
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atromitos have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market30 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Angelos Tzavellas 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lazaros Tzolis 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Atromitos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A loan move for Joel Abu Hanna is in the works
Kavala have made the call to Levadiakos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fanis Roibas, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Kavala will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
56 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AEK keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market16 Aug 2027
“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 Jack Aitchison.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to OFI: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Kavala counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kavala now.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clock does Luis Schlishting’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kavala could ask drops and the wages Luis Schlishting can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Panetolikos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market9 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jack Aitchison’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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 Christos Rovas is on it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kavala. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Kavala and PAOK have settled on $30.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Olympiacos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Kavala
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Kavala had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PAOK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Jul 2027
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 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to AEL Larisa: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Olympiacos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jul 2027
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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AEK is saying, and nobody at Kavala is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The deal with AEL Larisa 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEK have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The numbers do not look good at Kavala
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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christos Kountouriotis has his answer from Kavala; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Atromitos 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Manuel Baldé
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Alexandros Kartalis falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market12 Jul 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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. Jack Aitchison 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Kavala have made the call to Atromitos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Kavala 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Kavala
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Kavala academy
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Kavala will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
In brief
-
The dugout
Manuel Baldé knocks on the manager's door
-
Market
Javi Zarzo linked with a move away
-
Match
Continental football is in reach for Kavala
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with AEK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atromitos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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 Jun 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Giorgos Stamoulis, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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 Jack Aitchison has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AEK keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Kavala have made the call to OFI. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Kavala have made the call to AEL Larisa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
Belts tighten at Kavala
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Panagiotis Xygoros 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Fanis Roibas
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Kavala have made the call to Atromitos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A loan move for Lamarana Jallow is in the works
Kavala have made the call to Levadiakos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages swallow 89% of the Kavala income
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with AEL Larisa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“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.
Market7 Jun 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Panathinaikos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market7 Jun 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Kavala are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 May 2027
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kavala are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market31 May 2027
The shop window has Bilal Mazhar in it
Kavala have let the market know Bilal Mazhar can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market31 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Kavala counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kavala now.
Market24 May 2027
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.
Squad24 May 2027
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Kavala have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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 dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manuel Baldé, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Wages swallow 106% of the Kavala income
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.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jack Aitchison’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 May 2027
Christos Rovas has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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. 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.
Market10 May 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 May 2027
Manuel Baldé asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 May 2027
Javi Zarzo linked with a move away
The name of Javi Zarzo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kavala say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
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
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 May 2027
“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 Jack Aitchison.
The dugout3 May 2027
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 34 with 288 appearances behind him, and Kavala have to plan for both answers.
The dugout3 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kavala. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Belts tighten at Kavala
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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noa Ebane Caro, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 Jack Aitchison has written the date down.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Fanis Roibas: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Kavala will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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
Alexandros Kartalis falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
108% of the income goes out in wages at Kavala
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Metodi Kostov, and the manager let it.
Market19 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kavala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Too much change too quickly at Kavala
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
Market12 Apr 2027
The Javi Zarzo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javi Zarzo signs something — a contract at Kavala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Exequiel Márquez and Kavala agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tadeo Cedrés, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kavala. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad29 Mar 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Belts tighten at Kavala
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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christos Kountouriotis, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kavala. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Aitchison 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages swallow 122% of the Kavala income
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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Charly Dutournier trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kavala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Christos Rovas has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Kavala are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Jack Aitchison asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market15 Mar 2027
The Javi Zarzo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javi Zarzo signs something — a contract at Kavala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Javi Zarzo and Kavala agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market8 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Jack Aitchison knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jack Aitchison trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasilis Katsoulidis 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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. Jack Aitchison 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Kavala counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kavala now.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Kavala has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages swallow 117% of the Kavala income
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christos Kountouriotis, and the manager let it.
Market22 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kavala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Fanis Roibas: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Kavala will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad22 Feb 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Kavala has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Mutilva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Kavala asked and Huracán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rakip Bregu, and the manager let it.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Javi Zarzo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javi Zarzo signs something — a contract at Kavala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Match15 Feb 2027
Kavala in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 24 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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 Luis Schlishting.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kavala may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Luis Schlishting arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Luis Schlishting has, at Kavala, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The clock did what Niki Volos would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A last season at home is what Lucas Comachi is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Feb 2027
Noa Ebane Caro is 20, and Kavala have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
$9.0K settles it between the clubs for Christos Tzioras
Niki Volos have accepted the money. What Kavala do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
“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 0 signed and 0 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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. Jack Aitchison 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Atromitos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Mutilva 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Patronato have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 125% of the Kavala income
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Huracán 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan move for Martín Soto is in the works
Kavala have made the call to Huracán. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jan 2027
Chastening afternoon for Kavala
A 1‑4 beating by Iraklis was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match18 Jan 2027
Full time on the season at Kavala
Position 4 on 24 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad18 Jan 2027
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Boardroom18 Jan 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Jan 2027
At last: Kavala win one
12 matches without a win, and then this, against Anagennisi Karditsa. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market11 Jan 2027
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.
Match11 Jan 2027
Kavala refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Kavala asked and Colón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Anagennisi Karditsa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
12 matches without a win for Kavala
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Kavala are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Kavala cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Mutilva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Niki Volos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
11 matches without a win for Kavala
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Kavala are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 200% of the Kavala income
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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Apostolos Stikas, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Nestos Chrysoupoli came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Asteras Tripolis B, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 Dec 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 Konstantinos Galanopoulos left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The team sheet said everything about Charly Dutournier
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Charly Dutournier.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Luka Milunović
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Dec 2026
9 matches without a win for Kavala
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Kavala are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Dec 2026
Kavala throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with PAOK B the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Kavala will enjoy reviewing.
Match14 Dec 2026
Kavala refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
6 unbeaten for Kavala
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Kavala did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Javi Zarzo
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Mutilva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Markos Sifneos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 22 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.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.81. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Javi Zarzo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Javi Zarzo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Kavala have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 191% of everything Kavala earn
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Manuel Baldé
“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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Kavala
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Christian Mutilva falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Kavala
Something was said to Nemanja Žunić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kavala dressing room was either.
Match21 Nov 2026
Point won or two lost for Kavala?
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.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Nov 2026
Kavala up to position 2
16 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market16 Nov 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vasilis Papadopoulos has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kavala.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Javi Zarzo named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Javi Zarzo has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jack Aitchison signs something — a contract at Kavala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Christos Rovas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Both of them Javi Zarzo's — 8.11
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match7 Nov 2026
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match9 Nov 2026
Halfway: Kavala sit in position 2
16 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market9 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
The division's best last weekend was a Kavala man
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The dugout
Rakip Bregu gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Kavala's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kavala has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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. Christian Mutilva 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 191% of the Kavala income
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.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Kavala
Iraklis 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 Jack Aitchison.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kavala may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Manuel Baldé
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Andrada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Kavala
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Kavala
17 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Konstantinos Galanopoulos to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Oct 2026
Kavala refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 14 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.62, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 22 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Javi Zarzo 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Nestos Chrysoupoli leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Javi Zarzo's mistake decides it
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Kavala needed to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christos Kountouriotis, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Javi Zarzo talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kavala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market12 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Javi Zarzo
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 241% of everything Kavala earn
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Andrada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Kavala had all but put away. Asteras Tripolis B will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Kavala counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kavala now.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Sep 2026
Kavala bow out of the cup
Kalamata go through and Kavala go home, 1‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match26 Sep 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Exequiel Márquez decided otherwise. PAOK B had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Exequiel Márquez takes the afternoon — 7.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Exequiel Márquez provided it, and the 7.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
A cup hiding at Kalamata leaves Kavala explaining themselves
1-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Match23 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kavala and Kalamata, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match26 Sep 2026
PAOK B made Kavala work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jack Aitchison falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Sep 2026
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
Kavala make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Kavala have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Kavala
Exequiel Márquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match19 Sep 2026
PAS Giannina made Kavala work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.67 on the card, and the Kavala support went home talking about one name.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tadeo Cedrés commits to Kavala for another 4 years.
The dugout21 Sep 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.” Konstantinos Galanopoulos, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Makedonikos, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manuel Baldé, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Kavala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Andrada 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pablo Viudez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pablo Viudez has just signed for Kavala, and for once the answer mattered.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 24 in, 2 out at Kavala
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Kavala board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Giannis Ioannidis to Panargiakos has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Kavala with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Kavala
Apostolos Apostolopoulos 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 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Kavala
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Aitchison was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Kavala win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Kampaniakos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Both of them Javi Zarzo's — 8.46
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Kavala say no — this time
The offer from MB Rouissat for Bilal Mazhar 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Kavala
Alexandros Kartalis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Christian Mutilva falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Kavala, 2‑1 the final word against Kampaniakos in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexandros Kartalis falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AEK 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Aris Kollaras has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kavala.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: Mladost Lucani still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Kavala's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Kavala
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Godoy Cruz have kept their man, and Kavala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rakip Bregu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Christian Mutilva has just signed for Kavala, and for once the answer mattered.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at OFI is saying, and nobody at Kavala is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christian Mutilva commits to Kavala for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Kavala
Manuel Baldé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Christian Mutilva falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Grigorios Siopis 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pavlos Pelkas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Bilal Mazhar has come up in conversations Kavala were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Kavala
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 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.