A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everything agreed with Panserraikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The phone has started ringing about Hélder Suker again, and this time the name on the line is Szeged-Csanád GA. AEL Larisa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AEK is saying, and nobody at AEL Larisa is enjoying the guessing.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alexis Coquard has, at AEL Larisa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEL Larisa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Atromitos for Yvann Maçon 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
The deal with AEK 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.
Yvann Maçon 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Kossonou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davíð Kristján Ólafsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
18 games, 8 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at AEL Larisa now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. AEL Larisa will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Zisis Chatzistravos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 10 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nacho Castillo is living that version at AEL Larisa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Boardroom15 May 2028
101% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at AEL Larisa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Antonio Zarzana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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 Yvann Maçon is on it.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 32 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Erick Ferigra 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.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEL Larisa, another week without a signature from Hélder Suker.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Erick Ferigra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davíð Kristján Ólafsson 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 new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Apostolis Christopoulos has written the date down.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Hélder Suker’s negotiating for him
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
101% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
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.
8 goals in 18 games at Anagennisi Karditsa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AEL Larisa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at AEL Larisa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AEL Larisa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 3, 32 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Kossonou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Álex Petxarromán and AEL Larisa agree another 3 years.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Zarzana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davíð Kristján Ólafsson 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 new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
103% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Antonio Zarzana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Nobody at AEL Larisa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 32 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Kossonou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davíð Kristján Ólafsson and AEL Larisa agree another 3 years.
Antonio Zarzana 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.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Something was said to Yvann Maçon and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutHélder Suker knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Raufoss for Hélder Suker 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hélder Suker has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davíð Kristján Ólafsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and AEL Larisa know now that the thought has arrived.
Pione Sisto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 151 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Zisis Chatzistravos is a AEL Larisa player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
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 new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEL Larisa, another week without a signature from Aaron Leya Iseka.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL Larisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
AEL Larisa close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at AEL Larisa has worked with Zisis Chatzistravos before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pione Sisto
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kyriakos Aslanidis has, at AEL Larisa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. AEL Larisa will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davíð Kristján Ólafsson 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.
Panathinaikos pay $47.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hellas Syros waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8 goals in 18 games at Anagennisi Karditsa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at AEL Larisa updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AEL Larisa will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Nikos Melissas is on it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kavala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 3 on 32 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.
The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Anagennisi Karditsa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Antonio Zarzana 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.
“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 AEL Larisa know it.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Anagennisi Karditsa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Yvann Maçon 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asteras have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Spyridon Stafylidis 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.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. AEL Larisa had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Vasilis Sourlis scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for AEL Larisa is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AEL Larisa pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
108% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Marko had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, AEL Larisa have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
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.
Jorge Fernandes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Erick Ferigra 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Pavlos Samaris 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Evangelos Karelis 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Everybody at AEL Larisa saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Marked 6.56 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Zarzana 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AEL Larisa and Ilioupoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 ratings6 Dec 2027
Tasos Donis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Antonio Zarzana at his very best
PAOK go through and AEL Larisa go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
A cup hiding at PAOK leaves AEL Larisa explaining themselves
0-3, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antonio Zarzana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Erick Ferigra 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.
Álex Petxarromán 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Zarzana. 2‑1 against Hellas Syros, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“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 dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Dimitrios Giakoumakis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at AEL Larisa is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Yvann Maçon is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Kossonou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEL Larisa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Theodoros Limnios 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEL Larisa, another week without a signature from Hélder Suker.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dimitrios Giakoumakis after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and AEL Larisa 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Jorge Fernandes 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between AEL Larisa and Egaleo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.89. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AEL Larisa.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Erick Ferigra 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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 9 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.
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.
Something was said to Antonio Zarzana and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bressan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Antonio Zarzana 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Efthymios 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Paul Reulet’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AEL Larisa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 116th minute. PAS Giannina will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zisis Chatzistravos provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hélder Suker
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Álex Petxarromán 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Dimitrios Giakoumakis left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Apostolis Christopoulos, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Vasilis Sourlis'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.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deal that would have taken Zisis Chatzistravos to Asteras has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AEL Larisa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Nikos Melissas to Panathinaikos has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to AEL Larisa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Erick Ferigra falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEL Larisa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Asteras waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at AEL Larisa 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Stanislav Kostov reports back to AEL Larisa with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
AEL Larisa asked and Foolad 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 words a physio says slowly. 73 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Iraklis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
The mood at AEL Larisa has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AEL Larisa know it.
In brief
SquadWords at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Nestos Chrysoupoli for Ahmed Kossonou 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.
AEL Larisa asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Noah Verhoeven has just signed for AEL Larisa, and for once the answer mattered.
Pione Sisto 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.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL Larisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
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.
AEL Larisa have gone to Chania with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
AEL Larisa asked and NK Maribor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AEL Larisa, another week without a signature from Hélder Suker.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutHélder Suker knocks on the manager’s door
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AEL Larisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEL Larisa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Iraklis is saying, and nobody at AEL Larisa is enjoying the guessing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AEL Larisa have done the hard part with Olympiacos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at AEL Larisa is running low.
OFI did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.9M for Aaron Leya Iseka, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christos Albanis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vojvodina is saying, and nobody at AEL Larisa is enjoying the guessing.
AEL Larisa have gone to Chania with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL Larisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Vojvodina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bressan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Angelos Tsingaras has his answer from AEL Larisa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Nikos Melissas is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Makris signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and AEL Larisa have no good answer.
The words a physio says slowly. 127 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL Larisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
Yvann Maçon 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AEL Larisa know it.
In brief
The dugoutJorge Fernandes is still being punished for one mistake
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at AEL Larisa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The name of Zisis Chatzistravos has come up in conversations AEL Larisa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Niki Volos paid $430.0K and AEL Larisa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris 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.
Pione Sisto 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.
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AEL Larisa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ilioupoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee is $190.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ilioupoli drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Apostolis Christopoulos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL Larisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee is $860.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Anagennisi Karditsa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anestis Vlachomitros has, at AEL Larisa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levadiakos have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kavala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Anagennisi Karditsa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
AEL Larisa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Krasnodar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
AEL Larisa asked and Ilioupoli 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 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 arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AE Kition had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEL Larisa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at AEL Larisa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at AEL Larisa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jorge Fernandes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anagennisi Karditsa have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Erick Ferigra 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.
Goni Naor 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris 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 loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at AEL Larisa no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AEL Larisa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yvann Maçon signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Angelos Tsingaras has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Makris signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Savvas Mourgos is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zisis Chatzistravos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AEL Larisa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Stanislav Kostov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Position 13 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rui Patrício and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Erick Ferigra 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 dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Jorge Fernandes'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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AEL Larisa, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AEL Larisa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Nikos Melissas is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Apostolis Christopoulos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AEL Larisa know it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Apostolis Christopoulos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yvann Maçon signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andreas Makris signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikos Melissas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christos Albanis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Erick Ferigra falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Apostolis Christopoulos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at AEL Larisa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Davíð Kristján Ólafsson signs something — a contract at AEL Larisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Pione Sisto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bressan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at AEL Larisa says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Nikos Melissas has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Rui Patrício 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tasos Donis and AEL Larisa agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Erick Ferigra 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for AEL Larisa is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thodoros Venetikidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra 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.
Position 13 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 AEL Larisa know it.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and AEL Larisa now know that too.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at AEL Larisa, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 13 on 15 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Apostolis Christopoulos 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.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Erick Ferigra 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Rui Patrício 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.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Luis Boiero will call it something else in private.
11 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thodoros Venetikidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AEL Larisa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. OFI had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
Position 12 and 14 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.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AEL Larisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
9 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AEL Larisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erick Ferigra wants continental football; whether AEL Larisa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Rui Patrício was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A last season at home is what Luis Boiero 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra 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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEL Larisa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
AEL Larisa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Spartak Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Rui Patrício and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
AEL Larisa asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. AEL Larisa will try again when the window opens; Hellas Syros may not be selling by then.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Pione Sisto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AEL Larisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
AEL Larisa and Hellas Syros have settled on $320.0K. 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thodoros Venetikidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ferigra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
AEL Larisa asked and Lokomotiv Sofia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Krasnodar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The name of Zisis Chatzistravos has come up in conversations AEL Larisa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ferigra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AEL Larisa know it.
AEL Larisa asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Hellas Syros for Christos Albanis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The chase for Apostolis Christopoulos ended with $500.0K changing hands and Kifisia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Rui Patrício was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
AEL Larisa asked and Asteras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AEL Larisa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
7.56, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AEL Larisa have done the hard part with Niki Volos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Jorge Fernandes 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.
1‑6 against Panathinaikos, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thodoros Venetikidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AEL Larisa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Thodoros Venetikidis has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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 AEL Larisa know it.
Erick Ferigra 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AEL Larisa and Panathinaikos in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.85 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Dec 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Dimitrios Giakoumakis to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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 Nikos Melissas is on it.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Rui Patrício
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Rui Patrício was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It had gone 12 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Hélder Suker takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hélder Suker provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hélder Suker. 3‑1 against Volos NPS, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Andreas Makris was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Position 12, 10 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Emanuel Šakić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout14 Dec 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.” Dimitrios Giakoumakis, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutLuis Boiero knocks on the manager's door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Savvas Mourgos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Dimitrios Giakoumakis to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Spyros Risvanis has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Pione Sisto
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutLuis Boiero knocks on the manager’s door
Position 12 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eleftherios Papagiannopoulos 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Konstantinos Stafylidis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Grigorios Georgiadis 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.
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Erick Ferigra'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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It needed Andreas Makris to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against PAOK, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dimitrios Giakoumakis was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the AEL Larisa dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; AEL Larisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AEL Larisa has been clear about where Thodoros Venetikidis stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AEL Larisa will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against PAOK in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
9 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.
“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 AEL Larisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AEL Larisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Kifisia, 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 combined actions and 7.25. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Dimitrios Giakoumakis to a room that had heard them before.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, AEL Larisa have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a AEL Larisa man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Gaël Kakuta was the best thing in any of them.
Aris Thessaloniki next, and one man in the AEL Larisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Savvas Mourgos is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AEL Larisa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at AEL Larisa the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Gaël Kakuta takes the afternoon — 9.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gaël Kakuta provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Yvann Maçon 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between AEL Larisa and Levadiakos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AEL Larisa.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
107% of the income goes out in wages at AEL Larisa
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AEL Larisa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
11 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about AEL Larisa and Olympiacos in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AEL Larisa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Spyros Risvanis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AEL Larisa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AEL Larisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout14 Sep 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 1‑3 Dimitrios Giakoumakis left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikos Melissas'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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Nestos Chrysoupoli had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AEL Larisa can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The phone has started ringing about Pione Sisto again, and this time the name on the line is Panathinaikos. AEL Larisa are listening politely and promising nothing.
AEL Larisa asked and Anagennisi Karditsa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Asteras spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
AEL Larisa asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. AEL Larisa have paid $990.0K for Tasos Donis, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Marked 7.76 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, AEL Larisa had the best player on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and AEL Larisa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
BoardroomAEL Larisa turn down the training-ground plan
The offer from Panathinaikos for Pione Sisto 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.
AEL Larisa asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AEL Larisa have done the hard part with Aris Thessaloniki, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Jorge Fernandes 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.
$260.0K was the most the club would pay and PAOK were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Asteras next, and one man in the AEL Larisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at AEL Larisa would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The terracesThe Pione Sisto rumours reach the terraces
AEL Larisa asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.7M was the most the club would pay and Panathinaikos were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $270.0K — a club that wants Dimitris Monastirlis enough to be asked twice.
AEL Larisa have gone to PAOK with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Yvann Maçon 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at AEL Larisa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Makris 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 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hélder Suker has, at AEL Larisa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$2.7M on the table at Panathinaikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.8M — a club that wants Giorgos Kyriakopoulos enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AEL Larisa have done the hard part with AZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AEL Larisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cádiz have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stylianos Mavropanos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lazaros Donis 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grigorios Stafylidis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Yvann Maçon and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universidad Catolica have kept their man, and AEL Larisa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Luca Andrada again, and this time the name on the line is Egaleo. AEL Larisa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Makris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.